The “morning after pill” is now available to women of all ages without a prescription. As of Friday, Federal Judge Edward Korman overturned the Obama Administration’s proposed ban against women younger than 17 years of age from purchasing emergency contraception without a prescription. His decision sparks controversy as to whether emergency contraception is safe for adolescents, especially when girls as young as 12 menstruate. Deemed the “abortion pill” by pro-life activists, emergency contraception availability also struggles against a debate on the morality of promoting sexual activity in minors or abortion.
The availability of emergency contraception to women of any age does not necessarily promote unsafe sexual activity. However, by removing the restrictions of prescriptions, teenagers and adolescents now know that there is an option to prevent an unplanned pregnancy that does not get parents involved. By requiring a prescription, the adolescent could have even missed the 72-hour window for taking emergency contraception. Korman’s decree now expedites the availability of emergency contraception, saves a visit to a physician and also averts the stress of telling parents or physicians.
The decision to go to a pharmacy and ask for emergency contraception should be as informative as possible for the patient. Previously, by including parents or a doctor, it can be assumed the adolescent learned the magnitude of taking emergency contraception and how to avoid having to take it again in the future. Pharmacists should feel responsible for educating a minor of how it works and explain how to use male or female condoms to avoid pregnancies and STI transmission. Pharmacists are essentially taking on the responsibility of a parent, family physician or social worker.
Kathleen Sebilius, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, had originally decided to require adolescents acquire a prescription for emergency contraception. Now that the policy has been overturned, she worries about the health impacts on young women, according to The Washington Post. There have not been studies on the effects of emergency contraception’s high-hormone concentration on girls 11-years-old and younger. By forcing adolescents to see a physician, the policy effectively involved doctors to monitor patients’ health.
Younger women, minors specifically, are not as well educated when it comes to avoiding a pregnancy. Sexual education in school should now become the forefront of this debate. If adolescents are having unprotected sex or even using condoms with oil-based lubricants (which leads to them breaking), those problems can be remedied by sexual education in schools. Teenagers should know that emergency contraception should not be a frequent solution and that the name itself implies “last resort.” Despite possible health impacts of taking emergency contraception, the alternative — an abortion or a pregnancy— is much more invasive, dangerous and expensive.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
They know what skills children should be learning at each age level and they design games and activities around that knowledge base.