Plan B Needs a Doctor

[Geee]

National Review:

How many parents think it’s okay for a twelve-year-old girl to have unprotected sex and then decide on her own to follow it up with the morning-after pill? If you find any parents like this, please contact social services right away — until recently, their daughter’s doctor could at least have stopped a twelve-year-old from using the morning-after pill regularly, as a form of birth control, because a prescription was required.

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Ignoring the essential role of a physician in treating teenagers and dispensing active chemicals is the major problem with unrestricted over-the-counter use of the morning-after pill for all ages, a policy that a federal judge in Brooklyn, Edward R. Korman, has now approved. (The pill was first made nonprescription for those 18 and older, until a ruling by the same judge lowered the limit to 17.) Most doctors believe all females who are sexually active should visit a gynecologist regularly to screen them for HPV and other sexually transmitted diseases. It is especially important to begin screening the youngest females. It is during these visits that a gynecologist can openly discuss the reasons the preteen is sexually active, who the partners are, and the need for condom use. If necessary, the doctor can also authorize a supply of morning-after pills while explaining more effective ways of birth control.