NYC public high schools will now provide Plan B free to students

[conuly]

That is, only those students whose parents have not specifically opted out.

Any comments about how this is bad for no other reason than because it "will encourage teens to have sex" will be ignored. That reasoning makes no sense to me, and if I wanted to start flaming people over it I'd just go over to yahoo news. That also goes for people explaining why it makes sense to them, asking why it doesn't make sense to me, or otherwise, you know, trying to get me to concede on the premises that a. contraceptives encourage sexual activity among teens more than hormones do and b. that I should care who does it with whom and at what age, because I really really don't.

Comments

[legendary-zelda.livejournal.com]

I couldn't care less if teenagers have more sex, as long as they're taking safety precautions and it's all consensual. I suppose I never quite got the obsession with preserving virginity.

*shrugs*

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I am really really uncomfortable with the idea of public schools practicing medicine.

As far as contraceptives go, I think the best one is knowledge. Know what the risk are, know how to minimize them, know what your boundaries are and how to enforce them, know how to recognize a bad relationship and how to avoid or get out of one.

[conuly]

You don't require a prescription to get emergency contraceptive, and it's given out by the nurse, who is an actual nurse. To that end, it's not much different from handing out tylenol with parental permission.

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

"Actual nurses" aren't supposed to prescribe medication. Nurse practitioners can: anything else nursing is supposed to have a doctor's oversight.

[conuly]

Well, again, it's not a prescription medicine. It's over the counter. Like tylenol. The only difference is that instead of paying $50 for it at the pharmacy they'll get it for free from the school.

[conuly]

Furthermore, under this plan, they consult with a doctor first in any order. Teenagers are entitled to their own private medical care.

[dandelion.livejournal.com]

Is it really, with no consultation? That's astonishing. Over here, if you're a pharmacist providing the version you pay for rather than the one you get free on prescription, you have to become specially accredited (yep, aside from your pharmacy degree!) to sell it, and each patient who gets it has to go through a questionnaire with you in a side room. And the patient must be 16, because the OTC version is only licensed in over-16s, or your area must have a specially-drafted local exemption. If you wanted a nurse supply here, you would then either need a special legal instrument for nurse supply rather than a pharmacist, or have a nurse capable of writing prescriptions. And if the girl is under 16, you would then need to assess whether she was legally competent, understood what she was asking for, etc etc etc, because that's required for supply of contraceptives to under 16s without parental permission.

So that's why I personally am not certain a nurse should be handing it out to teenagers: it'd be a bit tricky legally here. It is not just treated as an item you can walk into a pharmacy and buy, especially if you're 14. I'm really keen on sex education and improved use of contraceptives among teenagers but I can't help thinking that there must be this many restrictions on its sale for some sort of reason (remember, this is the same NHS which provides all hormonal contraceptives free of charge on prescription, so it's unlikely to be because we're trying to stop people having sex). And I'm also not so keen on a scheme that makes it a lot easier to get Plan B than a regular oral contraceptive (since the plan is to see a nurse for Plan B and a doctor for a course of contraceptives). I'd be concerned that that would encourage girls to use Plan B exclusively, and that all falls apart if you have sex on Friday night and aren't in school until Monday, at which point you have to wait for the school nurse to get a doctor's approval and bam, you're easily out of the 72-hour window.

[conuly]

The schools really push condom use here, so I don't think people are likely to use emergency contraceptives instead. The one thing we all know is those don't protect against disease.