Strollerderby

As long as drugs that can be misused and cause serious harm are available over the counter (like the aforementioned Robitussin and NyQuil), it's ridiculous for morning-after pills to be regulated differently. Yes, some foolish teenagers will misuse it by using it in lieu of condoms, but those are the same foolish teenagers who can easily buy NyQuil. So the only reason to require parental consent is because teen sex is such a boogeyman.

Parents cannot control their kid's sex life, and government should not try.  Parents' job is to educate & guide their kids, thereby giving them the tools they need to navigate interpersonal relationships.  Government is there to prevent & punish people who hurt other people (rapists, murderers, etc.).  Making it way more convienent for a teen to have a baby and leave it in a bathroom than get the morning-after pill doesn't make any sense at all.

It should be noted that Plan B bears little resemblance to "The Morning After Pill" that was available in the 80's and early 90's. Plan B does not bring on a period and side effects of its use are in line with side effects for regular hormonal birth control, or for that matter, pregnancy.

Rr: the whole contraception access leading to teen sex: On a related note, it's been found that since abortion was legalized, sexually transmitted diseases have increased exponentially. I think that in the analysis, the conclusion is that there is a causal relationship. Which, okay, is sort of a different topic, but it is related, and I think that those who deny any sort of correlation at the least are kidding themselves. (The abortion-STD thing was reported in a law review article a few years back; pretty un-PC, so no wonder why it got no press. Besides, who reads law review journals anyway?) Anecdotally, one of the reasons I didn't, at age 23-24, sleep with my husband before we were married is because I didn't want to get an rx for birth control pills, and I didn't trust a condom, and I knew it would NOT be cool with my parents if I ended up pregnant OR if they found out I was having sex. So my "lack" of access to birth control actually DID prevent me from engaging in sexual intercourse.

Also, what's wrong with a little control over one's child's sex life? I would never, of course, say that it's okay to literally lock your child up or anything, but if you find out that your kid is having sex and you don't want him to, I don't see what's wrong with taking away (your) car keys (presumably he's borrowing a car) from him, or not letting boy-and-girl hang out in the basement after-hours. If the kid is going to have sex, then he'll find a way, but if you've raised your minor child differently and expect different behavior, there's no need to aid and abet him in his rule flouting.

Considering that the legal age of consent in New York State is 17, this only makes sense. How could the state say that you are old enough to have sex, but not old enough to make your own reproductive choices?

My daughter's school called me once when she brought a cough drop to school and told me that it had to be administered by the school nurse because it was a drug.  I just don't understand how we can insist that children can not be trusted enough to administer a cough drop without supervision but they can buy Plan B?  In schools kids are not supposed to take an asprin but out of school it seems to be a free for all.  It seems to me that the government (which runs the schools and sets these arbitrary age limits) is trying to have it both ways.  Under their watch in the schools, don't do any drugs of any kind no mater what, but out of school (i.e. when we can't be sued) do whatever you want.

I think any side effects of the morning after pill are more benign than having a baby and greatly narrowing your life choices just when they should be at their broadest.

One other thing: It's silly to equate Nyquil and Plan B. If kids are going zombie with Nyquil, it is because they are ABUSING it; they're not using it how it was meant to be used. On the other hand, Plan B, I'm pretty sure will only ever be taken to prevent pregnancy, which is it's proper use. It's the "proper use" and its possible side effects with which so many people (myself included) have a problem. If we're going to remove everything that can be potentially abused, lie Nyquil, our pharmacy shelves, and half of our grocery shelves (Twinkies, anyone?) will be empty.

ChiLaura, it's all nice and well to expect all teens to be as sensible as you were in your 20s, but the teens who aren't as resourceful need more from the world than, "Do it right, or suffer." It's all the more important to provide them with morning after pills when you consider that these are the same kids who can't even take care of themselves, let alone a baby.

It would be wonderful if we could trust all parents to raise their kids to be practical and smart, and all teens to be practical and smart. We can't. It's less than ideal to provide them easy access to a drug that could hurt them (and as noted above, Plan B isn't nearly as hard on your body as past versions of the morning-after pill), but it's better than having them have abortions, or babies.

I can somewhat understand where the conservatives are coming from...however I don't agree with them calling the pill 'the abortion pill' www.newsy.com/.../plan_b_the_new_plan_a  I know that my friends' parents never talked to them about sex, and because of this they would rather take the chance of getting pregnant rather than tell their parents they think they need the pill.  Lowering the age is a smart decision, because if a girl thinks that she needs it, then she does regardless of her age. Its an issue of rights, not who might potentially abuse it. Another thing to consider is it's price. Its not like you would want to spend $40 each time you have sex.

ChiLaura: Abortion was federally decriminalized in 1973, which coincides timewise with events like the Sexual Revolution, the implementation of laws allowing unmarried people to access contraception, the Gay Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, the movement to end the "conflict" in Vietnam, greater acceptance and incidence of recreational drug use by large groups of Americans, and a lot of other. To say there's a causal relationship between legalized abortion and increased STD rates is to ignore a whole host of major cultural shifts that have impacted the way Americans have been conducting their sex lives since the immediate post-WWII era. Can you dig up a link/citation for that law review article? I want to read that thing and spank it.

Plan B isn't spontaneously combusting girls in any of the other countries that allow people under 18 to buy it over the counter, so why shouldn't we make this pregnancy-preventing medication as accessible as possible to Americans? I though we *wanted* to decrease our national teen pregnancy and birth rates, as well as the number of abortions among girls under age 18.

Good article on Plan B: seedmagazine.com/.../plan_b_the_behind-the-counter_over-the-counter_pill

C.Schmidt, thank you for summarizing the issue so brilliantly: "If a girl thinks that she needs it, then she does regardless of her age."

Yup. By the time she has realized she needs a morning after pill, it's too late for her parents to tell her that she really isn't old enough to have sex - she already did. The parental advisory role is already irrelevant - now it's just time to get to the pharmacy fast, and tell Mom and Dad later, if at all.

Women have died from using the morning after pill.  it's not  a safe alternative to parenting.  Then again, i'm one that would not encourage my child to get an abortion if she did find herself pregnant.  Two wrongs won't make a right, and if she was innocent, and it was rape, abortion turns her into a murderer.  Say what you want, but women's hearts know the truth.

I don't think women have died from using Plan B, i.e. "the morning-after pill". Women have died from infections resulting from incomplete medical abortions, but medical abortion (RU-486/mifepristone or methotrexate + misoprostol) isn't the same thing as Plan B. I would much rather my daughter use Plan B to prevent a pregnancy than face the risks associated with either an abortion or pregnancy and childbirth.

I don't understand why someone under 18 needs parental permission for a tatoo or a piercing, but buying a drug like Plan B is ok. And how, exactly, is a 17 year old girl's body that different from a 15 or 16 year old girl's? This has more to do with politics than anything else.

A 17yo girls body *isn't* that different from a 15 or 16yo girl's body. And I agree that this has to do with politics, not science.

In IL, people aged 12 and older can get STI screenings without parental notification at the public health clinics. I am not sure how old you have to be to receive services from Planned Parenthood and other community-based sexual health clinics, but I know they serve youth under age 18 without requiring parental notification. It's great when youth can and do speak openly with their parents or guardians about their sexual activity, but I would still rather my child get contraception and other sexual healthcare without my knowing it than for them to go without.

What became of the sixth and ninth commandment?