{{Short description|Reproductive health activist (1943–2025)}} {{use mdy dates|date=March 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Sharon Camp | image = | caption = | education = Pomona College<br />Johns Hopkins University | title = CEO and president of Guttmacher Institute | birth_date = {{birth date|1943|11|7}} | birth_place=Easton, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|10|25|1943|11|7}} | death_place = La Plata, Maryland, U.S. }}
'''Sharon Lee Camp''' (November 7, 1943 – October 25, 2025) was an American policy expert and women's reproductive health activist. She served as the CEO and president of the Guttmacher Institute for ten years until her retirement in 2013. A women's reproductive health campaigner, she was the force behind making the Plan B Contraceptive Pill available in the United States.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="Semafor obit">{{cite news |last1=Chivers |first1=Tom |title=Plan B pioneer Sharon Camp dies aged 81 |url=https://www.semafor.com/article/11/14/2025/plan-b-pioneer-sharon-camp-dies-aged-81 |access-date=14 November 2025 |work=Semafor |date=November 14, 2025}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Sharon Camp was born in Easton, Pennsylvania, on November 7, 1943 to June (née Stout) and Albert Camp, which was the nearest hospital to her parents’ house across the Delaware river in New Jersey.<ref name=":3" /> She was the eldest of three sisters. Her father worked for the US Navy as a scientist specialising in rocket fuels. She lived on a base in China Lake, California for part of her childhood as the family moved with her father's job.<ref name="nyt" />
Camp was an honors graduate of Pomona College (class of 1965) where she had studied international relations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2025-11-18 |title=In Memoriam: Sharon Camp ’65, Pioneer in Women’s Reproductive Health {{!}} Pomona College in Claremont, California - Pomona College |url=https://www.pomona.edu/news/2025/11/18-memoriam-sharon-camp-65-pioneer-womens-reproductive-health |access-date=2025-11-21 |website=www.pomona.edu |language=en}}</ref> She was on the yearbook staff, was a tour guide and played badminton as well as taking part in Model United Nations.<ref name=":0" /> She also held a master's degree, rooted on African Studies with focus on development economics and political development. She spent a semester studying at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.<ref name=":3" /> Following hitchhiking through Africa with female friend with a backpack and a sleeping bag she undertook a Ph.D. in comparative and international politics, doing her doctoral dissertation on Charles County, Maryland, researching political development in southern Maryland, a rapidly modernizing area of the country. The later two degrees were from Johns Hopkins University.<ref name="nyt">{{cite web|title=Sharon Camp, Mother of the ‘Plan B’ Contraceptive Pill, Dies at 81|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/health/policy/sharon-camp-dead.html|date=November 14, 2025|publisher=The New York Times|last=Green|first=Penelope|access-date=November 14, 2025}}</ref><ref name="PAI" /><ref name="Graduation">{{cite web |title=Sharon Camp '65 Pomona College Commencement 2013 |url=https://www.pomona.edu/sites/default/files/2013-commencement-camp.pdf |accessdate=26 July 2018 |website=Pomona.edu}}</ref> Whilst undertaking her Ph.D, Camp was elected to serve on the Democratic State Central Committee for Charles County, which included sitting on the Drug Abuse Committee and the local Mental Health Advisory Committee. She later credited this experience as getting her interested in state health activities.<ref name=":3" /> Aged 23, she narrowly survived an illegal abortion in Mexico.<ref name="nyt" />
==Career== Immediately after graduation, Camp worked as a lobbyist for children's food programs for children and on behalf of Native Americans. Following this she spent 18 years (1975 to 1993) at the Population Crisis Committee non profit organisation (now called Population Action International), working internationally and seeing first hand the terrrible social problems caused by lack of access to birth control.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=PAI Celebrates the Life and Leadership of Dr. Sharon Camp, PAI Emeritus Board Member, former Senior Vice President and “Mother” of Plan B |url=https://pai.org/resources/pai-mourns-the-loss-and-celebrates-the-contributions-of-former-senior-vice-president-dr-sharon-camp/ |access-date=2025-11-21 |website=PAI |language=en}}</ref> Camp ultimately became Senior Vice President.<ref name="PAI" />
Camp was a key but anonymous author of the Programme of Action adopted by the world’s governments at the 1994 International Conference on Population.<ref name="PAI" />
In 1997 Camp was the founder, CEO and President of Women’s Capital Corporation, "the company responsible for the development and commercialization of the Plan B emergency contraceptive".<ref name="News" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Zernike |first=Kate |date=May 19, 2003 |title=Use of Morning-After Pill Rising And It May Go Over the Counter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/19/us/use-of-morning-after-pill-rising-and-it-may-go-over-the-counter.html?searchResultPosition=3 |access-date=November 14, 2025 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The small pharmaceutical company was founded in January 1997 and is considered to be the "mother of Plan B".<ref name="PAI">{{cite web |title=Sharon Camp, Ph.D. |url=https://pai.org/who-we-are/our-board/7060-2/# |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726072114/https://pai.org/who-we-are/our-board/7060-2/# |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |accessdate=26 July 2018 |website=PAI}}</ref> Half of the proceeds from the emergency contraceptive was reinvested in the nonprofits which had financed the development, with the other fifty percent directed into a charitable trust.<ref name=":0" /> Camp succedded in getting regulatory approval for the contraceptive, which had a transformative impact in both the United States and Canada. She was responsible for building the groundwork to enable the move from prescription to over-the-counter contraceptive provision in the two countries.<ref name=":2" />
Camp was a key player in the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception, which led to emergency contraception being considered a standard part of women’s health care across the globe.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Sharpless |first=Rebecca |date=August 2003 |title=Sharon Camp Population and Reproductive Health Oral History Project |url=https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/prh/transcripts/camp-trans.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=21 November 2025 |website=Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Northampton, MA}}</ref>
In 2003, Camp moved to the Guttmacher Institute as president and CEO. She led the global reproductive health research and policy organization for a decade.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2025-11-11 |title=Statement on the Passing of Dr. Sharon Camp from Wendy Bostwick, Guttmacher Board Chair, and Destiny Lopez and Jonathan Wittenberg, Guttmacher Co-Presidents and CEOs {{!}} Guttmacher Institute |url=https://www.guttmacher.org/2025/11/statement-passing-dr-sharon-camp-wendy-bostwick-guttmacher-board-chair-and-destiny-lopez |access-date=2025-11-21 |website=www.guttmacher.org |language=en}}</ref>
Camp chaired the boards of Family Health International, the National Council for International Health (now the Global Health Council), and the International Center for Research on Women, and was founding Chair of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project.<ref name="PAI" /> She announced her retirement from the Guttmacher Institute, effective July 15, 2013.<ref name="News">{{cite web |title=Following 10 Years of Stellar Leadership, Sharon Camp Steps Down As President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute |url=https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2013/following-10-years-stellar-leadership-sharon-camp-steps-down-president-and-ceo |website=Guttmacher Institute |date=July 11, 2013 |accessdate=26 July 2018}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
Sharon Camp died on October 25, 2025, at a rehabilitation facility in La Plata, Maryland, aged 81.<ref name="nyt" /> In March 2026, she was inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |title=Maryland Commission for Women Announces 2026 Women’s Hall of Fame Inductees |url=https://news.dhs.maryland.gov/reports/that/2026-womens-hall-fame-inductees/ |website=news.dhs.maryland.gov |publisher=Maryland Department of Human Services |access-date=March 31, 2026}}</ref>
== Legacy == Camp gave Pomona college an unrestricted bequest sixty years after she graduated.<ref name=":0" />
==References== <references />
{{Maryland Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camp, Sharon}} Category:1943 births Category:2025 deaths Category:Pomona College alumni Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:American women chief executives Category:20th-century American women Category:21st-century American women