Plan B in NYC Schools

Unless you're living under a rock, you've heard the news today. New York City schools are now offering Plan B One-Step (in other words, the morning after pill) to students in an effort to prevent unintended, unplanned, or unwanted pregnancies. People are going ape-shit crazy over this! I think it's fantastic!

It's all part of a program called the CATCH program (Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health). This is all on top of students having access to birth control injections (think, depo) and condoms. The program does allow for parents to opt their daughters out of the program, but so far, the school system is only reporting that 1-2% of parents are doing so.

Think about it. A 16 year old girl has sex with her boyfriend. The condom breaks. What are the chances she's going to go to her parents and tell them that she needs Plan B? What are the chances that she (or her young boyfriend) are going to have the money on their own to buy it? Slim to none. Now she can go to her school nurse and receive a pill up to 72 hours after having either unprotected sex (I hope we're teaching our daughters better than that) or after her birth control fails.

Of course, pro-lifers are jumping all over this one. It promotes teen sex (teens are going to have sex regardless, if they choose to do so). Plan B is technically an abortion (False. It takes the body about 72 hours for the body to go through the process of conceiving). It's not the school's place to do such a thing (Uh, with as absent as parents are these days, the kids need help from SOMEONE. They spend most of their time at school...why not there?).

If I was a parent in NYC and I got one of these notes sent home, I'd discuss it with my daughter. And if I had the slightest inkling from that conversation that she may not feel comfortable coming to me with something like a failed birth control issue, I absolutely would NOT opt her out of a program.

I really feel that this is a smart move for the school system, and I hope we start to see it in more schools across the country.