Barack Obama Plan B

Unlike President Barack Obama, I have no stake in this race because I don’t have children, but the issue at hand remains the same.

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The current conversation in Washington D.C. revolves around whether or not Plan B, commonly known as the morning after pill, should continue to be sold in drug stores for girls 17 and older, or whether the pill should be sold without a prescription with no age limit.

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I mention President Obama because he doesn’t believe it should be widely available to teens under the age of 17. When speaking on the matter the President said:

“I will say this, as the father of two young daughters: I think it is important for us to make sure that, you know, we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine.”

It’s understandable that Obama wouldn’t want his daughters, Malia 13 and Sasha 10, sneaking off and buying pills they don’t know about or how to properly use. And neither would I. But what about those girls who don’t have a President as a dad, or who don’t have fathers at all?

The pill, which can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex, as of now remains available without a prescription only to those 17 and older who can prove their age.

And so remains the case after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who were willing to let the pill be sold without a prescription or age limit.

Taking Plan B can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if taken within the first 24 hours after engaging in sex.

The thing is, what’s to stop a girl of 14, 15 or 16 from asking one of their 17-year-old friends from buying the pill for them? I have little cousins who I’m sure are sexually active and not telling their mothers or fathers what they are doing.

I usually ride with President Obama, but on this one I can’t. There are so many unwanted pregnancies in low income poverty ridden Black and Hispanic neighborhoods that it makes sense to have the pill available to girls 14-16.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, less than 1 percent of 11-year-old girls are sexually active, but almost half of girls have had sex by their 17th birthdays, most of those beginning at age 15 or 16.

And I think you do need the pill to be available to younger girls, especially in cases of rape or incest. Sorry President Obama, but that makes more common sense to me than to not provide it at all.

If young girls can get access to condoms, then they should be able to get access to Plan B. Then again if they could get condoms they wouldn’t need Plan B.

The conversation can go in circles but sooner or later there needs to be an end result.

-S.G. 

<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/5746169/”>Should “Plan B” Be Available To All Girls No Matter Their Age?</a>