Soon minors will finally be able to purchase the morning-after pill over the counter. With that right fulfilled by our almighty state, women’s health will improve dramatically! The authoritarianism of the dreaded human parasite shall be vanquished with the swallow of a pill!
The Obama administration has decided to stop trying to block over-the-counter availability of the best-known morning-after contraceptive pill for all women and girls, a move fraught with political repercussions for President Obama.
The government’s decision means that any woman or girl will soon be able to walk into a drugstore and buy the pill, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription.
The right to privacy wins another one this week with the decision to allow girls under 17 to buy these drugs without restriction. Having “absolute control” over one’s body equalizes parent and child through the tool of sexuality. For now, young people don’t need to consult their elders to make difficult, impactful decisions involving human intimacy.
The issue here is what role our family plays in the sexual development of our children. With this move, the FDA effectively accepts all teenage girls as sexually active women. No need to ask your parents for a pill that may cause ectopic pregnancies and heavy bleeding; children now have “the absolute right to control [their] bodies without having to ask a doctor or a pharmacist for permission.”
The family, the very unit that must help develop moral conscience within the child, thus allowing for the privilege of liberty, loses its authority with every generation.
Even President Obama is concerned about his daughters being able to buy Plan B without his permission. You and a majority of married parents, Mr. President.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius blocked the move by the FDA in 2011, reasonably citing concerns that the drugs weren’t safe for 11-year old girls:
By then the F.D.A. also said it had determined that the drug was safe. But in an unprecedented move Ms. Sebelius overruled the agency. She said at the time that she had based her decision on science because she said the manufacturer had failed to study whether the drug was safe for girls as young as 11, about 10 percent of whom are physically able to bear children.
Beyond health concerns, at a more fundamental level, this drug provides a responsibility “off” switch for couples having sex for the first time. Go, make your mistakes as you “explore” your sexuality!
These mistakes include the misuse of condoms, which, I will freely admit, is unfortunately inevitable in our over-sexed society where hooking up is considered a rite of passage.
However, is this our national solution? To undermine the same parental authority needed to teach young people to remain chaste?
I am optimistic about one cultural implication: At least these kids won’t have tattoos and lip rings. You still need parental approval to buy those.
