Emergency Contraception in Public Schools and the concept of “Parental Rights”
Well, color me surprised.
New York City has started expanding its contraceptive offerings (emergency contraception, birth control, condoms, pregnancy tests) in city schools. I was honestly ignorant to the fact that any high school provided these services to teens. I obviously think it’s a great thing but there are good points from both sides, so let’s talk about it!
First we will get some figures out of the way, thanks to NYC Health Department:
7,000 girls under age 17 got pregnant last year in the city (Wow, that’s it?)
90% of those pregnancies were unplanned (I really hope the other 700 were well capable of taking care of another human being.)
64% were aborted (That’s 4480 preventable abortions)
2,200 became moms by age 17. About 70 percent drop out of school (Who’s really worried about “government dependency?”)
Emergency contraception (EC) for the majority of the time, prevents ovulation (egg from being released by the ovary), or preventing fertilization (egg and sperm joining), or by preventing implantation (a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus)
EC will NOT work on an existing pregnancy
This program does not require the explicit consent of the parents. At the beginning of the year parents can opt out of the program or can opt-in. According to Fox News’s Judge Andrew Napolitano the parents cannot opt in one service and opt out of the other. According to the New York Times the parents, do in fact get to select individually the services they wish the high school to provide to their teen. I will let you have the option of deciding who to believe, or I encourage you to seek the truth. (A hard concept, I know)
This brings up the idea of “parental rights.” If you’d ask my mother she’d still say that she reserves the right to decide almost any part of my life. She once exclaimed over the summer “WHAT ABOUT MY PARENTAL RIGHTS?” Cute mom, real cute. I know that she knows that I know that now I am an adult she has no legal basis in making my decisions for me. She does have the power to influence my decisions (or at least the things I choose to tell her about….;)), but by no means does she get the ultimate decision when it comes to my body.
After 21 years of being actively coerced to comply with my mother’s desires I know that she is against unnecessary medication. She often thinks I’m overmedicating myself, but she knows that’s not for her to decide so she stays out of it, and let’s my doctor decide with me what’s best. When it came to birth control, she was very understanding even though she made it very clear that I should “NOT HAVE SEX.” (Sorry, mom)
Basically what I’m saying is that while I understand that my mom would have concern with providing (any) type of medication, she would rather me get preventative services than be faced with a high school pregnancy like she was 21 ½ years ago. She clearly has my best interest in mind and I hope that the rest of educated parents would feel the same way.
Isn’t it the goal of both the pro-choice and anti-choice movement to prevent unwanted abortions? It seems obvious to me that preventing the pregnancy through education and availability of resources would be the first necessary action.
Well that’s maybe what the anti-choice movement wants us to believe when they really just want us to stop having sex.
So stop it.
Yeah, you.
Stop having sex.
Why? Because I said so.
