I want to thank everyone that commented on my first post about Plan B for their input and civil debate. For the most part, everyone was awesome. Disagreements? For sure. Hostility? Not much. Anywho, I thought I’d post one more on the topic to answer any dangling questions on my stance, and move on to the next subject. Thank you all for your participation!
In the UK, there was a study done from 1998 to 2004 to “examine the differential impact of increased access for teenagers to emergency birth control (EBC) at pharmacies on teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).” The abstract finishes off by saying:
The DD [difference-in-difference] estimates provide some evidence that pharmacy EBC schemes are associated with higher teenage conception rates, but this result is not upheld in the DDD [difference-in-difference-in-differences] models. In contrast both the DD and DDD models provide consistent evidence that pharmacy EBC schemes are associated with higher teenage STI rates.
I was able to find the study here.
To put the abstract more simply, there was no real fluctuation in pregancy reduction, but there were more sexually transmitted diseases with increased ease of access to emergency birth control for teens. The study also makes reference to one published in 2008 that held a trial of women of all ages (not just teens) that stated EBC “increased the frequency of coital acts with the potential to lead to pregnancy.”
Though these findings are based on passing these pills out freely in some areas, this seems to give argument to the possibility of more promiscuity. As of now, I haven’t seen an argument to pass them out freely in America, thankfully. My worry about STD transmission seems to have held up at least to some degree.
If being a pregnant teenager has the ability to be a drag on society, wouldn’t an STD that is unknown, yet passable to others, be more detrimental?
It was brought up that a confession must be made by the child to the parents. I emphatically answer, “yes.” If I have a young daughter that is living under my roof, having sex, I need to know about it. I was told that I should have no business knowing such details. But should she happen to become pregnant due to failure of any of the precautions taken, what then? I would have no way of having been prepared to help her begin to raise that child, seeing as my only duty isn’t only to provide a roof. If there are situations that the entire family could be placed in, I counter that it warrants drastic attention, and there should be accountability from all sides.
And yes, this all suggests that I have raised the young woman to trust me and my significant other. An argument saying that “all parents aren’t good,” is no argument at all. To subvert the parental responsibilities of all parents due to the lack of parenting from the few, is diabolical. I mentioned before that parents aren’t perfect. Even less perfect are the children that haven’t yet lived the years of their parents.
Why does this make sense to have prescription for minors? The shelf life of Plan B is two years. With a leeway such as this, the young lady will have said pills in hand should the decision to be sexually active ever happen. There is extra time for the parents to give moral support and advice on safe practices while going down this road.
I stated in my first post that Plan B could resort to becoming “plan A.” A retort to this was that it costs fifty dollars. Is fifty dollars cheap for teenagers? Could they afford that even if it was over the counter? Let’s not forgot, right now teenage unemployment is at 24%. That is a QUARTER of all teenagers. We’ve also been told that these kind of numbers of unemployment could be the new normal. If true, that kind of money would rest better on the shoulders of parents, which could help avoid any black market tendencies that a child may try to turn to.
The last thing anyone wants is to have their child turn up pregnant while in their teens. If there is a possibility of it happening, however, measures can be taken beforehand that can ease any downfalls of the situation, be it financially or in a supportive role.
Cross-posted on The Daily Kos.
