Have You Got a Plan B?

The New York Times had an article today announcing that the F.D.A. is going to ease restrictions on the ‘Morning After’ pill or Plan B. It will now allow for girls as young as seventeen to purchase the drug without a prescription. This marked an overturn of a Bush administration health policy and was met by celebration by pro-choicers. The ruling came after Judge Edward R. Korman of the Federal District Court ruled that the age limitations placed on the pill were based on politics instead of health concerns.

Despite at first being hailed as a method that would make a sharp dent in the already high teen pregnancy numbers, Plan B it has had no effect on the nation’s abortion or teenage pregnancy rates. Unfortunately, this has not been the cure for unplanned teen pregnancy.

On the flip side, abortion opponents predicted access to Plan B would encourage more unprotected sex and abortions were wrong as well. Despite this, Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America was displeased because she claimed that the legislation had ‘complete disregard for parental rights and safety of minors.’

While Ms. Wrights misgivings about parental rights are understandable, anyone who has been a highschooler knows that there is a definite disconnect and oftentimes a lack of communication between girls and their mothers. Allowing girls to access Plan B over the counter is a good first step, but I think the reason it has failed to have an impact on unplanned pregnancies is the lack a comprehensive sex education that promotes contraception instead of abstinence. Why don’t anti-abortionists, in the meantime (since under Obama’s administration I don’t see them repealing Roe v. Wade anytime soon), support methods to reduce unplanned pregnancies through dissemination of knowledge to both teenage boys and girls about contraceptives such as Plan B. Reducing the demand for abortion, in my opinion, is much more important that the legality of it.