FDA Lowers Age for Next-Day Birth Control

I don't have a daughter, only a son, but I've worked hard to build a relationship with my son that makes him feel comfortable talking to me about anything.  I'd like to think that if I had a daughter, I'd try to build a relationship where she'd talk to me if this situation arose.

I can't say how I'd feel.  All I can say is that I'd hope my child discussed it with me first.

agree on the sad part.  One thing cool on the whole birth control/abortion debate is pretty much nobody on either side wants their 15 year old daughter to get pregnant.  :-/

As a pro life guy, I'm obviously not a fan of the morning after pill and I'm even less of a fan of a kid being able to make that kind of decision by herself.  But even taking my opinion of the morning after pill out of the equation I'm still conflicted about a child having access to them.

On one level I feel you are giving a lot of decision power to a child who isn't old enough to consent to pretty much anything legally.  I don't even think they can get a tattoo without parental consent.

Then on another level I personally have no problem with teenagers having access to birth control without parental consent, so I guess it really depends on considering the morning after pill a form of birth control or a post conception thing.

So, even with my civil rights minded argument for the baby it's a lot harder to argue for baby rights in this gray area.

sigh, so I'll just fall back to not liking the morning after pill in general.  :-/

truth

I truly have no idea, because I don't have kids and as such don't really follow the science of this, but isn't this pill technically doing just that?

Yeah, this is where I say it's in that gray area for me.  In one aspect it works to prevent ovulation and/or fertilization which is no different than standard birth control.  It is also possible that it prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg which is obviously just barely over the conception line or at the least standing on it.

Now RU-486 (which Plan B is not) is a straight up abortion pill which causes a miscarriage.  It's easy to get them confused.

That's what's sad... that the morning after pill is thought of as birth control. We have birth control... it's called birth control. This is call ed the morning after pill.... meaning oh crap I had unplanned sex and I'm too irresponsible for birth control and now I have to clean up my mess. I find that sad on many levels.

I thought these were all the same... basically an overdoes of birth control.

I couldn't begin to explain the science behind it, but my understanding is that yes it's the same hormone that's in birth control but the much higher dose does different things.  How's that for a scientific explanation. ;-)

Morning after pills...fixing the symptom, not the problem.

Typical of our morally bankrupt nation.

<raises hand>  However, I did get married at 18.  ;-)

+1

agreed.

So differing opinions are not "playing nicely"?

Exactly how is the morning after pill "protected sex"?

And I was not having unprotected sex at 15. At the time I sure wish I was, but I wasn't.... and the fact that a girl gets pregnant at 15 and can't discuss options with parents and needs to "sneek" to a drug store instead of to a doctor to OD on birth control to save herself is sad on many levels. I'll stand by that statement.

If you are 18, go do what ever the heck you darn well please.

Wow.... so now a 15 year old gets raped and instead of seeing at least a doctor, let alone her parents and the police...it's much much better for her to sneek to a drug store to OD on birth control. I can't even believe you made such a  statement.

As teenagers we think we know it all and the best solutions.

My best friend fell pregnant we were 17.  I was already working she was still in school.  She didn't want to tell her parents so I used my money to pay for a termination in a private clinic.  Our mothers were away for the weekend so we only had to get by our dads.  We told both we were staying overnight at each others house.  This happened most weekends so no-one checked it out.

I stayed at the clinic that Saturday night with her.  She was home Sunday.  Her parents never found out and she was never gonna tell them - too afraid of their reaction.

Her younger sister found herself in the same situation a year later, she told the parents, they were totally supportive after the initial anger/shock etc.  They organised for a termination for her with the help of their family doctor etc.  Her parents were great about the whole thing.

My friend really regrets not going to them.

I hope my daughter will always be open with me and tell me anything...

Plan B does NOT terminate a pregnancy.  If you are already pregnant (fertilized egg implanted in uterine lining) Plan B DOES NOTHING.

If you missed a BC pill (which for some pills can mean as much as taking it an hour later than you usually take it) or a condom broke, this is an effective and safe backup plan.

Not everyone's parents are as cool as you all think you are, and most of you were NEVER teenage girls, so I guess I don't expect you to understand.

Differing opinions are great, that was more a statement about me preparing myself for a heated discussion about a very difficult subject.  And I was specifically making a (facetious) joke about us butting heads (again).  

The morning after pill is not protected sex in any way.  My point with that part of the statement is that I often bristle when men criticize women, or in this case girls, about their reproductive health choices.  I think there are very few men who have made the "right" choice with birth control EVERY SINGLE TIME they've had sex in their entire lives.  Unfortunately, it only takes one instance of this for a woman to become pregnant and it then is HER responsibility to deal with that.  I am often arguing this point with conservative Christians and I like to remind them: "Let he who is without sin among you, cast the first stone at her."  I'm not religious at all (though I was raised that way), but I have spent a lot of time with the Bible, and that is always the one that comes to mind when a man is judging a woman on her reproductive health choices.

I really wish 15 year olds weren't having sex.  I work with kids a lot, and 15 year olds are just not ready for that.  Of course, that doesn't mean that it isn't happening.  Sometimes that sex is consensual sex (fornication) between two young people.  I think that's what most people imagine when they think about young girls having sex, but it's just that it's not always like that.  I can go through and describe the other various scenarios if you really can't think of them; they're grim, but they happen.  Of course, the best way to handle those situations is for the girl to be able to go see a doctor, talk to her parents, and go to the police, but again, that is not always possible, and more importantly--the victim does not always feel it is possible.  

I have volunteered for Planned Parenthood and worked with rape victims.  You do not want to spend a lot of time thinking about all the different ways a 15 year old can be forced to have sex, and you definitely don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about who can be doing that forcing, but it is often people who are closest to her and who should be in the role of protecting her.  Often this is accompanied by YEARS of emotional and, sometimes physical, abuse.  Of course we want these victims to get proper healthcare (see a doctor) and get help from law enforcement, but the reality is that these victims do not always feel like either of those things are real options, especially in smaller communities.