The morning after pill is a safe and effective way for women to reduce the risk of pregnancy by 95 percent, if taken within 24 hours of intercourse, according to the Food and Drug Administration. But despite this fact and his reputation as pro-choice, President Barack Obama recently opposed a court’s ruling to lift the age and prescription restrictions of the contraceptive Plan B to include girls under the age of 15, and to place it on shelves right next to condoms as an emergency alternative for all women. Currently, no one under 15 can receive Plan B without a prescription, which requires a doctor’s visit.
The Obama administration has decided that even though Plan B has earned FDA approval for all ages, the drug should remain under a strict age limit that does not include young girls. This has women’s and reproductive rights groups outraged, as the unfortunate fact is that there are many young girls who engage in risky intercourse without a full understanding of the consequences. And for those girls, Plan B may save them from early parenthood.
In a May article in The New York Times, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America said, “Age barriers to emergency contraception are not supported by science, and they should be eliminated.”
Why does this concern the Obama administration? The decision to appeal the new rule caters to the more conservative opinions of powerful anti-choice groups, and it remains a political issue.
“The prevention of unwanted pregnancy, particularly in adolescents, should not be obstructed by politicians,” Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said in the New York Daily News after the appeals announcement last Wednesday.
She classified the political move as a step backwards for women’s health.
The morning after pill may very well be the only alternative for girls who have been raped and subsequently impregnated, aside from the painful and unnecessary abortion procedure.
According to statistics on TeenHelp.org, nearly four out of 10 teenage girls whose first intercourse experience happened at 13 or 14 report the sex was unwanted or involuntary. It is also reported that the main rise in the recent teen pregnancy rate is among girls younger than 15.
The argument given by those who oppose lowering the age limit is that parents wouldn’t be “in the know” about their young daughters’ status as sexually active if emergency contraception were available to young girls without a prescription.
But some young women do not have a positive parental figure, and they are the ones most at risk for unplanned pregnancies. They deserve to have access to the emergency contraceptive.
Abstinence is a hollow word after the pregnancy test strip has already turned blue and a young life has been altered because of a sex act. Simply making this pill available to anyone who needs it isn’t the worst idea in the world.
