FDA: Over-the-counter sale of morning-after pill OK for ages

[thyme4change]

She apparently lives in a world where your typical "Plan B" scenario is a girl walking up to her parents and saying, "Mom, Dad, I know I'm drugged to the gills with hormones because Billy and I don't use a condom, but can I get $80.00 to buy some 'Plan B' pills? I have a scrip from Dr. Spudberg."

No - I live in a world where teenagers have sex, even when their parents don't want them to.  You can be an ostrich and pretend they don't.

[Tennesseer]

May 1, 2013 7:28:31 GMT -5 oped said:

Sorry if my spelling confused you. Do you  teach that masturbating is a healthy alternative? Or that it is also treating your body without care? Just curious.

[Deleted]

May 1, 2013 7:23:07 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

May 1, 2013 7:16:51 GMT -5 imanangel said:

So do you teach your SON that A gentleman keeps his penis in his pants and if he doesn't then he is not worthy of A lady?

Many parents, especially fathers, quietly give their sons high fives for 'scoring' before marriage while chastising their daughters for the same. Best the sons get some experience before marriage and sow their oats. These good sons have to get that experience with someone's daughter. Boys good-girls bad.

My Husband is A kind of person rather to get remarried to A Widow over Divorced.

[Deleted]

May 1, 2013 7:28:31 GMT -5 oped said:

Sorry if my spelling confused you. Do you  teach that masturbating is a healthy alternative? Or that it is also treating your body without care? Just curious.

 Let me put it this way.

The way I see it your mind's already made up before you listen to anybody And I refuse to waste my time with you.  Have a good one.

[Deleted]

A couple people have commented on using Plan B as a substitute for traditional birth control.  While I don't have firsthand experience, my understanding is that it's like having someone reach inside you and ring your uterus out like a dish rag.  A fair bit of cramping and unpleasantness.

Not something you would choose on a routine basis.

[Shooby]

May 1, 2013 6:51:08 GMT -5 oped said:

May 1, 2013 6:34:30 GMT -5 Shooby said:

This is an absolute outrage and infringement on parental rights.

The parental right to... ?

The parental right to make medical decisions for my MINOR child.

[Deleted]

  

Have a good one, friend.

[Deleted]

i am confused

the age of consent in MOST states is 16

in some, it is 17

before that, it is statutory rape

so here, we have the feds usurping the states laws?

this almost makes sex OK for 15 year old girls the way i am reading it

what am i missing?

[Tennesseer]

May 1, 2013 8:31:10 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

i am confused

the age of consent in MOST states is 16

in some, it is 17

before that, it is statutory rape

so here, we have the feds usurping the states laws?

this almost makes sex OK for 15 year old girls the way i am reading it

what am i missing?

Statutory rape assumes one party is an adult while the other is a minor. Then you have the Romeo and Juliet laws in some states. I would imagine most teens have sex with someone from their own age group (school mate?).

[Deleted]

i found this @ answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110528220331AArUU5V

You left out a critical piece of information, without which answering your question is all but impossible, except in the vaguest terms. What state do you live in? What country do you live in?

If you're in California, the two 15 year old's raped each other and both are going to jail. In Washington state or Colorado, the sex would be legal. Same goes for Canada. But unless you tell us where this sex occurred, no one can give you a definitive answer, nor can anyone cite a law, since every state and country is different.

Edited after additional details were supplied:

Arrest and conviction are two different things. Cops arrest people all the time for doing things that are perfectly legal. Prosecutors charge people all the time with crimes that they didn't actually commit, just because the law looks similar to the prosecutor.

But a conviction of two 15 year olds is unlikely for sex in Alabama unless both of them are the same gender. Age of consent IS 16, so both are underage, and under the law, cannot legally consent to the other. But all definitions of sex crimes in Alabama state law also mention ages, and the minimum age to commit sexual abuse or rape is also 16. As long as both are under 16, their actions wouldn't be legal, but they wouldn't exactly be chargeable either. The closest any law seems to come to being chargeable is 13A-6-62, but even that doesn't seem to apply to two people less than two years apart in age, so two 15 year olds wouldn't be chargeable under it, going by the letter of the law.

Underage homosexuality, however, is a crime without that two year exemption, and likely both 15 year olds would be charged with sodomy if they were the same gender.

it changes immensely if the guy is 16 and the girl 15.....

[Opti]

www.thenationalcampaign.org/resources/pdf/TBR_1940-2006.pdf

I understand why some people prefer abstinence over birth control for teens but the URL or attachment shows its not a good approach in general if your goal is to limit teen pregnancy and abortions. The 50s and 60s were an unusually strict time and an environment pretty close to what pro-abstinence advocates would like.

[Deleted]

Lol. I wasn't trying to change my mind or anyone's. I was trying to acertain how likely it is your son would tell you the whole truth. Admittedly not my business, but I think you brought it up.

[swamp]

May 1, 2013 9:56:50 GMT -5 oped said:

Lol. I wasn't trying to change my mind or anyone's. I was trying to acertain how likely it is your son would tell you the whole truth. Admittedly not my business, but I think you brought it up.

She did.  And I also don't think her son is telling the whole truth. 

[Deleted]

why 15 is my question

why not the legal consent age at least

16 in most states...17 in a few

i can understand the need for this....condoms are not 100%

and sometimes kids are stupid.......

but can we at least keep it to what the state deems as an appropriate age for consent

as a dad of 2 daughters....i would have hated this 12-15 years ago

[Virgil Showlion]

I understand why some people prefer abstinence over birth control for teens but the URL or attachment shows its not a good approach in general if your goal is to limit teen pregnancy and abortions.

It works just fine if it's taught by loving parents, from birth, as part of a godly lifestyle.

But this requires parents to invest considerable time in counseling and educating their children, and it can be undercut by helicopter parenting or hypocritical acts such as adultery.

As I've said before, if your child decides to become sexually active against your wishes, he/she does not respect you. And if your argument is that "No child at that age respects his/her parents." you're talking out of your hat, because I've seen dozens upon dozens who do respect their parents to that degree.

You are against all birth control pills?

plan B is not an abortion pill. It's preventative.

If it prevents sperm from meeting egg to conceive the first viable cell in a new human being, then it's preventative. If it prevents the egg from implanting or otherwise results in the destruction of that viable cell, it's an abortion.

From what I've read, some birth control pills are abortifacients and some are preventative.

And abortion isn't my only concern in this case. As I said to DJ, we're eliminating one of the red flags that could clue parents in to their kids' sexual activity.

[swamp]

It works just fine if it's taught by loving parents, from birth, as part of a godly lifestyle.

Sarah Palin may disagree with you. 

But this requires parents to invest considerable time in counseling and educating their children, and it can be undercut by helicopter parenting or hypocritical acts such as adultery.

You can't be with your kids 24/7, and you can't control them.  Some kids are going to do it anyway, no matter how much you talk to them about it.

As I've said before, if your child decides to become sexually active against your wishes, he/she does not respect you. And if your argument is that "No child at that age respects his/her parents." you're talking out of your hat, because I've seen dozens upon dozens who do respect their parents to that degree.

I respected my parents plenty.  I did it anyway.  It wasn't about them, it was about me.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 2:26:18 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

May 1, 2013 0:15:51 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

every sperm is sacred, evt. 

A human life is sacred, sir. If you want to mock that belief, do us the service of dropping the facile one-liners.

that is contradictory.  if i WANT to mock it, why would i do that?

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 6:31:50 GMT -5 oped said:

May 1, 2013 2:26:18 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

A human life is sacred, sir. If you want to mock that belief, do us the service of dropping the facile one-liners.

You are against all birth control pills?

plan B is not an abortion pill. It's preventative. 

there seems to be some confusion about what is an abortfacient and what is a contraceptive around here.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 7:54:28 GMT -5 Shooby said:

May 1, 2013 6:51:08 GMT -5 oped said:

The parental right to... ?

The parental right to make medical decisions for my MINOR child.

i made that case earlier, and Virgil said that this thread was NOT about that.  glad i have company.

[swamp]

Plan B prevents implantation after creation of the zygote, so it's technically an abortifacient.  However, I don't consider the failure to implant of 6 cells to be an abortion. 

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 8:37:09 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

May 1, 2013 8:31:10 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

i am confused

the age of consent in MOST states is 16

in some, it is 17

before that, it is statutory rape

so here, we have the feds usurping the states laws?

this almost makes sex OK for 15 year old girls the way i am reading it

what am i missing?

So is it statutory rape if a 15 year old boy has sex with a 15 year old girl?

not sure.  but i know it is statutory rape if ONE of them is an adult.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 12:06:01 GMT -5 swamp said:

Plan B prevents implantation after creation of the zygote, so it's technically an abortifacient.  However, I don't consider the failure to implant of 6 cells to be an abortion. 

interesting.  thanks.

[Virgil Showlion]

Some kids are going to do it anyway, no matter how much you talk to them about it.

A few will.

Given the criteria I described, my observation over the past 15 years is that the vast majority won't.

I respected my parents plenty.  I did it anyway.  It wasn't about them, it was about me.

So when they told you it was wrong to sleep around, you ignored them.

When they asked you what you were doing all afternoon, you lied to them.

When they told you about the inherent dangers, explained that they loved you, and asked you to confide in them before putting yourself at risk, you disregarded their advice.

And this went on for how many years?

I don't see how you get "respected [them] plenty" out of that.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 11:49:37 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

I understand why some people prefer abstinence over birth control for teens but the URL or attachment shows its not a good approach in general if your goal is to limit teen pregnancy and abortions.

It works just fine if it's taught by loving parents, from birth, as part of a godly lifestyle.

But this requires parents to invest considerable time in counseling and educating their children, and it can be undercut by helicopter parenting or hypocritical acts such as adultery.

As I've said before, if your child decides to become sexually active against your wishes, he/she does not respect you. And if your argument is that "No child at that age respects his/her parents." you're talking out of your hat, because I've seen dozens upon dozens who do respect their parents to that degree.

You are against all birth control pills?

plan B is not an abortion pill. It's preventative.

If it prevents sperm from meeting egg to conceive the first viable cell in a new human being, then it's preventative. If it prevents the egg from implanting or otherwise results in the destruction of that viable cell, it's an abortion.

From what I've read, some birth control pills are abortifacients and some are preventative.

And abortion isn't my only concern in this case. As I said to DJ, we're eliminating one of the red flags that could clue parents in to their kids' sexual activity.

eliminating?  no.  we are not eliminating that.  attenuating?  probably.

[mmhmm]

May 1, 2013 6:51:53 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

I would rather my teen daughter take a morning after pill, than to be constantly taking birth control pills. My gut tells me they are not good.

The "morning after pill" is NOT to be used regularly to protect against pregnancy.  It's an EMERGENCY solution, not something to rely on every time you have sex without protection.

[Virgil Showlion]

May 1, 2013 12:06:01 GMT -5 swamp said:

Plan B prevents implantation after creation of the zygote, so it's technically an abortifacient.  However, I don't consider the failure to implant of 6 cells to be an abortion. 

Call it whatever you want. The term isn't important.

[swamp]

Given the criteria I described, my observation over the past 15 years is that the vast majority won't.

My observation is that they will.  You think they aren't doing it, but you aren't with them 24/7, and you don't know what they're doing.   Unless one becomes pregnant, you have no idea. 

I don't see how you get "respected [them] plenty" out of that.

I respect my parents.  I didn't do everything they told me to do.  They are hard working people who tried their best.  They also knew that I was going to make my own choices and they couldn't brow beat me.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 12:11:50 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

May 1, 2013 12:06:01 GMT -5 swamp said:

Plan B prevents implantation after creation of the zygote, so it's technically an abortifacient.  However, I don't consider the failure to implant of 6 cells to be an abortion. 

Call it whatever you want. The term isn't important.

interesting.

[djAdvocate]

May 1, 2013 12:15:05 GMT -5 swamp said:

Given the criteria I described, my observation over the past 15 years is that the vast majority won't.

My observation is that they will.  You think they aren't doing it, but you aren't with them 24/7, and you don't know what they're doing.   Unless one becomes pregnant, you have no idea. 

I don't see how you get "respected [them] plenty" out of that.

I respect my parents.  I didn't do everything they told me to do.  They are hard working people who tried their best.  They also knew that I was going to make my own choices and they couldn't brow beat me.

moreover, young adults are not expected to be wind-up-toys.  they are called young adults for a reason.

[steff]

I don't see teens having sex as having much if anything to do with respecting their parents.  Teens are going to have sex.  Raging hormones override common sense.  The best thing IMO that a parent can do, is to make sure their teen understands safe sex practices & has access to condoms. 

My 18 yr old son spent last Friday night at his 19 year old gf's house because her parents were out of town.  I didn't have to be told to know what was going to happen.  As they were leaving my house to head to her house for the night, I did IMO the best I could do & reminded him to use a condom & made sure he had them.  I'm also the kind of mom who didn't whisper that quietly to him, but hollered it to him as they were walking out the door.  I did however, as soon as finding out that he would be spending the night (I found out 2 days earlier) I bought a box of condoms & just left it in his desk drawer.  So I KNEW he had them (no excuses!). 

If we really want to try and make "respect for your parents" fit into my situation, I was respected by him.  I was told open & honestly where he would be...no lying.  He did NOT go against any teaching I gave him thru his teenage years because we've always openly talked about safe sex, condom use & even had the condom/banana puppet show when he was in Jr High.  I never preached abstinence ONLY to him.  I preached safe sex & condom use. 

He'll be 19 in 2 weeks, it would be rather stupid on my part to think he's not going to have sex at this age.