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FDA voting to let underage girls buy Plan-B with no prescription
By Ben ReiningaFebruary 11th, 2011, 3:30 pmComments (9)Teva Pharmaceuticals is pushing the FDA this week to allow Plan-B, their popular morning-after contraceptive pill, to be sold over-the-counter, without age limits. Currently, the pill is available with no prescription but only to women seventeen-years old and older.
If approved, it will, of course, make it easier for thousands of women to prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortion. However, it'll also mark an important legal shift since the Bush administration. Women's and reproductive-rights groups have long been pushing for greater access, but interference and legal actions by the previous action kept sales restricted.
Predictably, some conservative groups are protesting — ironically, since greater Plan-B access could only lower abortion rates — by claiming that legalization of the pill will lead to promiscuity. In unrelated news, studies have shown that just about all of them are currently cheating on their wives, impregnating their secretaries, or sleeping with their male aides.
Commentarium (9 Comments)
This needs to happen. In places where "abstinence" is taught in schools, they should hand this shit out like candy! If you refuse to educate the kids, you have to at least give them an out, besides abortion.
I've grown up in the bible belt, so abstinence is what we've all been taught. My parents actually talked to me about my options, unlike many of my friend's parents. During "sex education" I openly protested against the practices. These schools are essentially avoiding teaching the students about their safety; it cannot be considered an actual education. I've seen so many pregnant and STD riddled teens, it's sad more than anything.
I think this needs to happen. When I first started having sex I used all the protection I could. But sometimes you can still be unsure of what might happen. Irresponsible or not, this needs to be available to young girls.
Imagine the school nurse having access to Plan B. So if a teenage girl has unprotected sex she can discreetly see the nurse to nip it in the bud.
out of curiosity. do these conservative groups also oppose using condoms? because that would be consistent with their generally illogical beliefs
It sounds very convenient for the adult males having sex with underage girls.
But of course most liberals like to ignore the statistics on the serious age differences between most underage girls who are sexually active and the men using them.
Link please. My impression is that the average sexually active teenage girl is active with a teenage boy, but I don't have hard facts. If you have RELIABLE statistics that say otherwise, post the link.
The right-wing anti-women's rights movement opposes access to contraceptives of all kinds in order to highlight the negative consequences of premarital sex. My Canadian public school education wasn't abstinence oriented, but it was still basically a smear campaign against sexuality, focused primarily on the gory worst-case-scenarios of sexually transmitted disease. Sex ed needs to a) present ALL contraceptive options, not just the pill and condoms b) express the reality that even with fastidious precaution, STIs and pregnancy do happen, and c) that these eventualities do not negate one's value as an individual and a sexual being, and finally, d) provide information on the sex laws of the state, including the possible legal ramifications of sexting and online sexuality.
Opening up access to reproductive choice is vitally important, especially among young girls, but if education fails, such resources may go unexplored.