Courtney broke the good news here yesterday; here are some of the details:
Seventeen-year-olds will soon be allowed to buy morning-after contraceptive pills without a doctor's prescription after federal drug regulators complied with a judge's order and lowered the age limit by a year.The decision on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, which overturns one of the most controversial health rulings of the Bush administration, was scorned by anti-abortion advocates and hailed by their abortion rights counterparts.
It never fails to baffle me as to why anyone would want to block EC access to young women - they're the folks who need it the most! Besides, isn't limiting the number of unplanned pregnancies something we all want? Apparently not.
Click here for a timeline of the FDA/EC debacle.
Related: Plan B for teens? It's orgy time!
Walgreens harasses woman buying Plan B
It's a pregnancy test, not Plan B
Emergency Contraception approved for over-the-counter sale in Canada
Happy First Anniversary, Prescription-Free Plan B!
Federal Court: Pharmacists Can Refuse to Dispense EC
Conservatives say FDA politicized Plan B decision
Plan B-acklash
Over-the-counter Plan B: The First Month
Stores collecting information on Plan B users
White House subpoenaed over Plan B delay
Not over-the-counter, not even behind it...
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: EC available to 17 year olds.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/13237
How interesting that the article from ChristianNewsWire doesn't use the tired "now our daughters will be whores" argument.
To me, it sounds like their main point is that many women misuse Plan B, and because of that, it shouldn't b available. Oh, gee, I wonder why some women have no idea what Plan B really is and use it incorrectly. Couldn't be the religious right spreading misinformation about it, acting as if it is the abortion pill. Probably also isn't related to the lack of sex education in schools either....
Wow, that Christian "News" Wire article is filled with out and out lies. First, they say that Plan B is dangerous and that the FDA knows it but is making it available to minors anyway. Then they say it's not very effective anyway--wouldn't that part, if it were true, make them happy? All the little sluts would stay pregnant and be punished for their actions, which is what they want. They also say that women are using it as regular birth control because it's easy to get. Which I don't believe. I've never bought Plan B, but isn't it at least $20 or $30, if not more? What woman would use it as regular birth control when a condom costs a couple of bucks--and doesn't make you feel ill afterward. Maybe a few women take it after a one night stand they wouldn't have otherwise indulged in, but I can't imagine that it's that common.
It's pretty sad that these supposed Christians have very little relationship with the truth.
I still don't understand why it's only down to 17. The younger they are, the more they need to prevent pregnancy. I mean, I get that young women may need help and health care, but heaven forbid they help themselves first!
And gosh, Wendy Wright, you know exactly what it's like to be a young woman after unprotected sex! thank goodness for you!
That Christian "News" article is just... wow. To be honest I don't see why it should only be available to those over 17, that seems ridiculous.
I'm proud to say that in my country (England), you can legally get emergency contraception at any age. A woman can also get an abortion at any age without a parents' approval if the doctors believe she has enough understanding of the decision and it would be in her best interests to have an abortion without parental consent.
Emergency contraception, condoms and birth control pills are all available for free in the UK. I think it's shocking that women in the US have to pay so much money for them.
EC should be available for anyone under 17 as well. It only makes sense that a 14yr old would benefit from it even more so than an 17 or 18yr old would.
So, translation is, any time a young looking woman wants to buy EC, regardless of her age, she will be showing her ID with her name and address on it.
Great. That will even keep 17 yr old and older women from purchasing it is some cases, especially in less urban areas where there is already restricted access to reproductive health care.
Like still yesterday I knew the smallest details of her life: on what radio station its alarm clock is programmed, and that for a breakfast she eats kefir with bread and why it never liked a condom with pimples importunately appearing in erotic dreams, and that at it the allergy on contraceptive pills, and that was suddenly formed yesterday, going for a drive on a bicycle, she has got acquainted with your mum... Trends of modern youth completely not such as ours. Time is not necessary on a place...