[Seattle Greycat] 4/30/2009 02:21:00 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/30/galanos.plan.b/index.html

"Plan B risky for 17 yr-old girls."

Stuff like this makes me so angry.

First off, let's state the obvious. You are a dude. You do not have a
womb. You can not get pregnant. You don't get to decide if any woman
wants to take a pill that is tantamount to taking a stronger dose of
birth control. Sorry. Go back in time, be a teenager, grow a uterus and
have a pregnancy scare...then we can talk.

He describes taking Plan B as a "traumatic event". I've taken Plan B,
it's about as traumatic as taking aspirin. Some people may get a little
tummy upset, but that's about it. This isn't an abortion pill, hell, it
doesn't even work if an embryo has attached and is on it's way to
zygotehood. There's no blood (other than a heavier period). Maybe some
bad cramping - two weeks later when you have your damn period.

He goes on to state that this is taking decisions like this out of the
family and putting into the hands of the girls. Yes. It is and it
should be. If a girl is in a family that is supportive and loving, by
the time she is 17, she will know that. She will talk to her mother
and/or father about this, and most likely, her parents will give her
the money to get the pill to correct her mistake. Or she may already be
super responsible and wear condoms and be on the pill, so she will
never need to buy this.

In the real world, it's not always that way, in fact, I'd say the
majority of teen girls I've know had parents that would flip out, freak
out and go ballistic with anger and possibly rage if they knew their
child was having sex at 16 or 17. Just having sex, not even "I might be
pregnant." Then after the girl is pregnant, the parents may be like ol'
Sarah Palin and insisit the kid keeps the child, no matter what. (I
know Bristol said she wanted to keep her baby, but I'll bet you a
million dollars Palin didn't really give her any other choice, not even
adoption.) Great! So instead of a $50 mistake, these parents
will *make* their children "suffer the concequences" for their entire
lives and the entire lives of their grandchildren. Brilliant.

Then he brings up "Well, 17 yr olds will buy it for 15 yr olds". Does
he not understand this already happens? 18 yr old sisters will buy this
for their 15 yr old sister. Hell, if a girl approched me and said she
was too young to buy the pill and gave me the money to buy it for her,
I wouldn't even hesitate and I'd have no regrets. (We are talking 14+,
under that, it's really dodgy about the consentualness of the act in
the first place.)

I, personally, do not understand why BCP are not sold over the counter.
Sure, you could argue that 12 yr olds shouldn't be taking BCP, and I'd
agree, but we should really look at *why* those girls are taking them
in the first place - what sort of abuse is going on in their lives or
had happened in their life previously and get the girl some help. But
don't restrict a 16 yr old girl from getting on BCP, by 16 most girls
are mature enough to make their own decisions about their sexuality,
even if it might be a mistake at the time.

I try very hard to understand the mentality of the conservatives in
this country. I really do. I understand that change is scary to them
and anything new is suspect. It makes them feel like "traditions" are
being threatened. But not 75 years ago, it was common for girls as
young as 15 to marry. At 16, it was time for you to start looking for a
husband. By 20, you should be married. And at 23, if you weren't
married, you were a spinster. Is this a "tradition" that they wanted to
keep that they are sad that went went away?

Anyway, I'd rather have these girls taking a morning after pill than
taking drugs, drinking bleach (which they do) or using a bleach
(sometimes draino) and water douche to rid themselves of an unwanted
pregnancy. If you'd rather have that, you should be beaten severely and
then shot.