Phil Harvey

Harvey's operational philosophy was unique: it combined altruism with strong business models. Adam & Eve was, and continues to be, one of the largest sex product companies in the world. Harvey's share of profits from it supported DKT International which sells low-priced contraceptives by using business channels that are found in every corner of the world, including in low-resource settings. Special projects, such as those with the military in Ethiopia (which obliges all soldiers to carry condoms when they leave the base), or with local medical practitioners in India who make a small profit selling condoms and pills, extend and supplement this approach and ensure the products are widely available.

Harvey realized the potential of mail order when, at the University of North Carolina, he joined forces with Tim Black to begin selling condoms through the mail. Their efforts to expand the range of products led to the evolution of the sex products business. In Harvey's own words, "(w)e tried to get our customers to buy leisure wear, shipbuilding kits, belt buckles, model airplanes, but they just yawned at that stuff. Every time we put something with erotic appeal in the catalog, the bells would ring." Profit from their mail-order business provided the funds to launch Population Services International.

Mexico City Policy

In 1987, while embroiled in the prosecutions of the Reagan Administration, Harvey challenged the U.S. government for its "Mexico City Policy", an on-again, off-again policy first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 which requires all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving federal funding to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services as a method of family planning in other countries. In DKT Memorial Fund Ltd. vs. USAID, Harvey and two foreign NGOs fought to have the Mexico City Policy overturned. Ultimately, the DC Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling contributed to the policy being used only against foreign NGOs, while not invoked against U.S. NGOs. The policy was removed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, re-imposed by George W. Bush in 2001, removed again by Barack Obama in 2009, and re-imposed again by Donald Trump in 2017.

Legal Challenges

Between 1977 and 2007, Harvey was involved in several legal battles with the U.S. and New York state governments, in which he both challenged and defended himself against governments he believed were debasing First Amendment rights. As executive director of PSI in 1977, Harvey took on New York Governor Hugh Carey in a landmark reproductive health case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In Carey vs. Population Services International, the Court found unconstitutional, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, the New York Education Law that made it a crime (1) for any person to sell or distribute any contraceptives to persons under 16; (2) for anyone other than a licensed pharmacist to distribute contraceptives to anyone; and (3) for anyone, including licensed pharmacists, to advertise or display contraceptives. The 1977 ruling, in combination with subsequent rulings, confirmed that the protection of rights and privacy are not limited to married adults. A syllabus of the 1977 ruling noted that New York State had "conceded that there is no evidence that teenage extramarital sexual activity increases in proportion to the availability of contraceptives."

In 1986, Adam & Eve's offices in Carrboro, North Carolina were raided by 37 armed local law enforcement agents. For the next six years, Harvey defended himself against multiple indictments for obscenity brought by the Reagan Administration's Department of Justice under Attorney General Edwin Meese. Ultimately, he prevailed in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1992 after initiating proactive litigation against the U.S. government. Harvey documented this story in his 2001 book "The Government vs. Erotica: The Siege of Adam & Eve."

Nadine Strossen, then-president of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in the foreword of "The Government vs. Erotica": "Phil Harvey not only survived the government's relentless efforts to bully him out of business, as it had done to other businesspeople who also sold constitutionally protected materials to adults who sought those materials, even more inspiringly, Phil Harvey and his impressive legal team secured new legal precedents and prosecutorial policies that will protect other individuals and businesses from similar government harassment and oppression."