Videos Discuss Barriers to Emergency Contraception Access, Miss. TRAP Law, More

December 7, 2012 — Our video roundup includes a unique assortment of Web videos hand-picked by our editors. This week, we highlight a new campaign urging HHS to lift age restrictions on nonprescription sales of emergency contraception. We also feature segments from "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "Daily Show."

Hilary and Jon, an engaged couple, describe how a pharmacist refused to sell Jon emergency contraception because she had a "personal policy" of not providing it to men. Hilary says that the situation could have been avoided if EC was sold on store shelves, but because of federal age restrictions on EC sales to teens, the product is kept behind the counter. The video, produced by the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, coincides with a petition urging HHS to lift age restrictions on nonprescription sales of EC (RH Reality Check, 12/6). RHTP also has produced a video with AsapSCIENCE explaining the "science of 'Plan B'" (AsapSCIENCE, 12/4).



Rachel Maddow reviews the situation facing the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic in Mississippi. The clinic has asked a judge to block a law requiring its doctors to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals because every hospital has denied the clinic's application. The state could consider the clinic to be out of compliance with the law next month if the court does not intervene, according to Maddow (Maddow, "The Rachel Maddow Show," MSNBC, 11/29).



Republicans "can't just throw in a free pedicure during every mandatory ultrasound" and expect more women to vote for them, according to Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show," who notes that every GOP House committee chair is a white man (Stewart, "Daily Show," Comedy Central, 12/4).