Strollerderby

I worked with the only non-profit in the county (that I know of) that helps teenagers navigate the judicail bypass process, i.e. the legal and supposedly safe way of avoiding telling yur parents you are pregnant and want to have an abortion.  It's called Jane's Due Process. In my time there I did not see a single teenager who refused to tell her parents out of pettiness or immaturity.  There were a lot of teens on the cusp of abuse, telling would get them beat up or kicked out, but being at home was still better than the streets.  There were teens who's older sisters had been sent out of the country, where they were denied the ability to go to school, forced into marriages, and even circumcised. There were the teens in the formal and "informal" foster system who had no recognized adult guardian to tell.  No one had ever demanded proof of Grandma's legal guardian status before, so she didn't have it. Several studies have shown that teens from healthy homes tell their parents when they have unexpected pregnancies.  Parental consent laws only capture teens who have good reason not to involve their parents.  I have had "christians" tell me that anything that happens to a unexpectedly pregnant teen is part of god's plan, even getting thrown through the bathroom wall by her father, who then refused to consent to an abortion because the child was part of her punishment. Both the mom and the infant were kicked out of the house, of course. Why should anyone have to "own up" to a parent like that?

It took me a little bit of knowledge and 10 seconds with Google to find info on the "Plan B" emergency contraceptive:

www.plannedparenthood.org/.../emergency-contraception-morning-after-pill-4363.htm

Teens don't have that little bit of knowledge, apparently, but they do have Google. Let's do what we can to get them the knowledge, too, okay?

This is the "morning after pill", so you have to take it right away-- within 3 days after having sex. You can buy it in advance and have it around "just in case". Of course, if you're doing that, you should buy some condoms and have those around "just in case" too. That's why they call the pill "Plan B": using birth control is "Plan A". Sometimes $#!* happens, though, so you need the Plan B.

It might be a bit of a hassle for a teen to get this, but Planned Parenthood and similar clinics are used to working with teens. If you call them and ask straight up, "here's my situation; what can you do for me without telling my parents, where's the nearest clinic, and what will it cost?" they'll give you straight answers.

Teens seem to have reasonably good "informal" access to other prescription drugs-- including, supposedly, the veterinary drugs in this case. Couldn't whoever sells them their other drugs get a hold of a supply of Plan B and sell *that* in the lunchroom or whatever?

didn't these kids learn ANYTHING from their abstinence only education?!?