“We have seen too often reproductive health face unnecessary barriers, delays, complications, stigma, and bias,” says Dana Singiser, co-founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy organization in the coalition supporting HRA Pharma’s application. “It ultimately interferes with women having access to the care that they need—and that they deserve.”
Read MoreAdvocates are calling on the Biden administration to issue updated guidance clarifying that health plans must cover OTC contraceptives even without a prescription, particularly ahead of the FDA's decision. "There's a tremendous opportunity for them to do that around the time of what we expect to be a historic advancement of reproductive health," said Dana Singiser, co-founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative.
Read More“I don’t think it [birth control] is the next target. I think it is already a target,” said Dana Singiser, founder of Contraceptive Access Initiative, a group lobbying for over-the-counter access to birth control.
Read MoreSupporters of reproductive rights are also calling on Mr. Biden to have the F.D.A. move quickly on its review of over-the-counter contraceptives in light of the Dobbs decision. Dana Singiser, a founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the experience with Covid-19 showed that the F.D.A. “can work with urgency during a public health emergency, which is what women are facing right now with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”
Read MoreWhy it matters: With abortion rights in flux, physicians are joining reproductive health advocates in urging increased access to oral contraceptives, which could join already approved emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, on pharmacy shelves.
"It takes on a new urgency as we look down the path of having the loss of the right to abortion in this country," Dana Singiser, co-founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative, told Axios.
The Biden administration has repeatedly and clearly stated its commitment to follow the science. There must be no exception when it comes to the FDA’s consideration of over-the-counter oral contraceptives. Sen. Murray — the same Senator who wears the battle scars from Plan B — laid out her expectations clearly at Califf’s confirmation hearing, saying, “[W]hen it comes to women — women’s health, I do expect the FDA’s decision to be made based on science, just as I do all of FDA’s decisions. So, Dr. Califf, I will be watching…closely to make sure decisions are governed by the data, not by politics.”
Amen, sister. The Biden administration has the opportunity to learn from the Plan B debacle and approve the pill for over-the-counter use without delay. It just needs to take it.
Read MoreThe FDA process for an over-the-counter switch revolves around "whether a label can be designed for people to take the product as instructed, and with other information that would inform them whether it's an appropriate drug for them," said Dana Singiser, a co-founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative and a former aide to former president Barack Obama.
Studies have shown that women can utilize checklists to determine whether the pill is right for them, but Singiser told Newsweek that "anything in the category of advancing reproductive health always faces additional burdens and hurdles and attacks and misinformation."
She added: "Nobody knows exactly what's going on inside the walls of the FDA, but we do know that the two companies that are seeking that OTC switch approval have been at it for more than five years and haven't even reached the stage of submitting a formal application."
She said the lack of urgency in moving the birth control pill over the counter is "disturbing" butt presented a "great opportunity for the Biden-Harris administration to make meaningful advancements in access to contraception."
Singiser said: "These products have been taken by tens of millions of women around the world for the past 60 years. It's time. There's no reason that the pill should not be available over the counter."
Read MoreToday, there’s even more cause for concern: Our public figures aren’t just parroting back inflammatory rhetoric — they’re the ones starting it. Just last month, the president accused Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of being an “enemy of the people.” And last week, his attorney Joe DiGenova went on the Howie Carr Show to say ousted cybersecurity chief Christopher Krebs “should be drawn and quartered” and “taken out at dawn and shot” for rejecting baseless accusations of voter fraud.
Read More“Of course, the story of the ACA did not end with its passage. Implementation was similarly fraught and also largely led by women; Secretary Sebelius and Marilyn Tavenner, the confirmed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) after the ACA’s passage. After the rough roll-out of HealthCare.gov, two new women stepped up: Sylvia Burwell as secretary of HHS and Kristie Canegallo as the first White House deputy chief of staff for Implementation. They helped forge systems, processes, and default policies and practices—many of which continue today. Women were leaders and drivers of the ACA legislative teams (e.g., Dana Singiser, Amy Rosenbaum), and communications teams (e.g., Anita Dunn, Linda Douglass, Stephanie Cutter, Tara McGuinness). And from the first to last day in the White House, Valerie Jarrett and Cecilia Munoz, through the Office of Public Engagement and Domestic Policy Council, contributed in numerous ways, not least by supporting women in this unusually demanding workplace.”
Read MoreIn the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, one in three jobs held by women have been deemed “essential.” In fact, 72 percent of grocery store cashiers, 89 percent of home care workers, and 91 percent of nurses are women. Meanwhile, women have long performed caretaking duties at home disproportionately, whether for children or elderly parents. This domestic work has never been easy, and now with the closure of schools across the country, many women have added teaching to their long list of responsibilities.
Our country is relying more heavily than ever on the labor of women, which brings the chronic undervaluing of their work into more glaring light. It’s hard to reconcile the public reverence for our frontline workers with the persistent reality that women make 80 cents for every dollar a man makes, with black and Latinx women faring far worse than their white counterparts. Worse: We are relying on women on the frontlines — in the workplace and at home — to get us through this crisis, yet as the coronavirus has destabilized our economy, women are bearing the brunt of the fallout.
60 percent of people laid off because of the virus have been women. Black women are twice as likely as white men to have been laid off or furloughed because of the coronavirus. Given the cumulative effects of the gender wage gap, this leaves many families with little in the way of emergency savings to get through this difficult time. In 2016, the average black family had 10 cents to the dollar of the typical white family in terms of household wealth.
Read MoreMaura Keefe, a former chief of staff to the New Hampshire senator Jeanne Shaheen, said Klobuchar has managed to stay in the race by consistently exceeding expectations.
“She has the ability to exceed expectations and certainly did herself a lot of good last night,” Keefe said. “The closing argument is always good in any race, but particularly in a crowded field like this, where 50% of the voters may be undecided so the closing response could be very very important.
“She had a standout debate and made a very compelling case on electability, which is her history and ability of winning independents and moderates. So she put herself in the conversation for the final few days here. She’s counting on a momentum and surprise and exceeding expectations, and that’s how you continue.”
Read MoreMaura is going to be missed not just in our office, here in Washington and in New Hampshire, but throughout the Senate because for the last several years she has played an important leadership role among the Democratic chiefs of staff and among the women chiefs of staff.
She has made a positive difference for all of our offices, and she has made important and constructive inroads with Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle - her presence will be missed by so many people in this institution.
Read MoreSPOTTED at a party at the Anheuser-Busch offices on Wednesday for Maura Keefe, who is leaving as Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s chief of staff: Sens. Shaheen, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), Mandy Grunwald, Mike Spahn, Brian Rice, Susan McCue, Tamera Luzzatto, Laurie Rubiner, Alison Betty, Chad Kreikemeier, Laura Schiller, Tom O'Donnell, Mike Henry, Mindy Myers, Krista O'Neill, Lyndon Boozer, Julie Dwyer, Luke Albee, Sean Cartwright, Reema Dodin, Neil Campbell, Mike Harney, Mike Meehan, David Leiter, Ed Pagano, Patrick O'Neill, Stacy Beck, Andy Blocker, Andrea LaRue and Louisa Terrell.
Read MoreSenate Chiefs of Staff
When formed: 2006.
Membership: The 37 female chiefs—19 Republicans and 18 Democrats.
What they do: Quarterly brown-bag lunches. “When I got into the chief-of-staff rank, there weren’t that many women in the position,” says Maura Keefe, Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s chief of staff. “It’s a bipartisan little sorority.”
TRANSITION -- Maura Keefe has launched Keefe Strategies, a new public affairs firm. She was previously chief of staff for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).
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