Today, as lawmakers advance restrictions on reproductive health care that disproportionately impact young people, Advocates for Youth and the American Society of Emergency Contraception (ASEC) are launching the EC Access Network to expand access to emergency contraception (EC) on college campuses. Through a  partnership with 6 EC manufacturers and distributors, the EC Access Network will provide 135,000 EC pills to students on 500 campuses nationwide.

Advocates for Youth, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring young people’s reproductive and sexual health and rights, continues its work on racial justice by launching a series of educational modules created in partnership with SisterReach. Advocates for Youth and SisterReach, along with other key experts and thought-leaders in the field, have created free, fully online e-learning modules to address issues of racial justice in sex education.

Youth organizers working to increase access to contraception gather today to mark the FDA Advisory Committee meeting to discuss approval of Opill, an over-the-counter birth control product. Young people are leading the fight for access, and have already contributed hundreds of comments to the FDA in support of OTC status for birth control.

Advocates for Youth welcomes the news that the FDA has rescheduled an advisory committee meeting to review HRA Pharma’s application to switch Opill, a progestin-only, daily birth control pill from prescription to over-the-counter status. The new dates - on May 9th and 10th - coincide with the 63rd anniversary of approval of the daily birth control pill, celebrated by advocates as #FreeThePill Day.

Know Your IX – Advocates for Youth’s survivor and youth-led project empowering students to end gender- based violence in schools – has championed this groundbreaking legislation alongside the National Women's Law Center, with nearly 80 other civil rights and survivor advocacy organizations endorsing the bill. 

National survey finds majority of young people struggle to access birth control, resulting in unwanted pregnancy, side effects and delayed doses