Plan B access without Parental Permission
Posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 9:54 AMFDA OKs Morning-After Pill for 17-Year-Olds
In response to a judge’s order, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to allow 17-year-old girls to get the morning-after pill — Plan B — without a prescription.
Plan B refers to a series of pills taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse with the intent of preventing pregnancy. The pills contain high concentrations of the hormones found in birth-control pills. The FDA had forbidden over-the-counter sales of Plan B to minors because of a lack of long-term data on the effects.
“From a scientific perspective, I don’t think it makes sense to make this medication available to adolescents,” said Dr. David Hager, an OB-GYN who serves on Focus on the Family’s Physicians Resource Council.
Political pressure drove this decision, said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.
“Even the most aggressive advocates for Plan B have admitted that nonprescription access to the drug does not reduce pregnancies or abortions,” she said.
How can a 17 year old obtain Plan B over the counter and without parental permission? I don’t understand how this is possible since parents have to sign for everything else?
I’ve taken my teenager to the doctor and I am made to sign a form every time giving her permission to be seen and treated, etc. The teen has to bring home permission slips from school for everything. Teenagers are not allowed to have over-the-counter anything at school without parental permission.
It doesn’t make sense to me that teens now have access to Plan B at the age of seventeen without parental permission.
I would want my child to have acces to the Plan B pill but then again teenagers are have sex at a younger age and theres nothing parents can do about it, I mean parent can try to persuade there children not to have sex until they are older but in the end its up to the child and teenagers odnt always make the right decisions so i think the Plan B pill will actually help reduce teenage pregnancies or unwanted pregnancies for anybody.