Sharon Camp believed in big ideas. After narrowly surviving an illegal abortion, Camp made it her life’s mission to make reproductive medicine safer.
From 1975 to 1993, Camp led Population Action International, a nonprofit focused on reproductive healthcare and family planning. In 1997, she founded Women’s Capital Corporation, the start-up responsible for the development and commercialization of Plan B.
She would go on to author more than 70 publications on the importance of emergency contraception and reproductive justice.
“Sharon devoted her life to advancing reproductive health, rights and autonomy,” physician J. Joseph Speidel said after Camp died in 2025 at the age of 81. “She was a colleague, mentor and friend whose intellect, courage and tenacity shaped not only the institutions she led, but the direction of our field.”
Camp’s work was constantly challenged by regulatory barriers, but she never let it stop her from her core mission: providing women with safe, reliable healthcare options.
“At least once in your life, put everything you’ve got behind some big, hairy, audacious idea,” Camp said in a commencement speech at Pomona College, invoking a phrase coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.
“I’ve done the big, hairy, audacious idea a few times myself, and believe me, there’s nothing that works better for growing the brain power.”
A version of this article originally appeared in the 2026 Feminist Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image via PAI
