Teen access to emergency contraception

[Pah]

Amid debate, FDA considers teen access to emergency contraception
By Martha Irvine, Associated Press, 10/17/2004 13:13

http://Complete article from Boston.com News

CHICAGO (AP) Some see easy access to emergency contraception as a way to drastically reduce teen pregnancy, already on the decline since the early 1990s. Others worry that its long-term effects on young women are unknown or argue that the drug, also known as the ''morning after pill,'' encourages teens to have sex.

Earlier this year, the FDA denied one drug company's request to sell its brand of emergency contraception to anyone. Now that company, Barr Pharmaceuticals, has submitted a second proposal to sell its Plan B brand to people 16 and older, but to require anyone younger than that to consult a physician. The company expects a decision next year.

''Kids are going to end up having kids because they're hiding from their parents; they're too scared to tell them,'' says a 17-year-old in Brooklyn, N.Y., who thinks over-the-counter access would ''definitely'' help teens like her. She asked that her name not be used because her parents don't know she used the morning-after pill in April after her boyfriend's condom broke.

However, a physician who opposes over-the-counter sale of emergency contraception fears that young women would skip regular visits to the gynecologist if they didn't need to see a doctor to get it.

''They're not going to get their pap smears; they're not going to get screened for sexually transmitted disease,'' says Dr. Gene Rudd, a gynecologist who serves as associate executive director of the Tennessee-based Christian Medical Association.

 

[Sunstone]

I've read that foresight isn't fully developed in humans until around the age of 21 or 22. It seems to me that the morning after pill is a medically safe way of handling the lack of foresight that some teens display when engaging in sex. Although I don't know whether it will encourage some teens to have sex, so what if it does? It will also encourage them not to get pregnant.