As a woman in Mississippi I can't overstate how important today's court decision making emergency contraception truly a over the counter medication is. For women in my state access to Plan B has been a huge barrier to having a complete range of reproductive health care. Women here routinely have to go to 5-10 pharmacies to get Plan B and that's in the Jackson metro area. If you are in a rural area you can basically forget it. Having it OTC means women can stock up if they wish without having to show ID or face a pharmacist who by law can say they don't believe in birth control so they won't sell it. In a state with the highest teen pregnancy rate it baffles me why people would be so opposed to young women having access to emergency contraception when they need it without having to jump through hoops to get it. Today I heard "well it may interact with medication they are already taking so its not safe for them to get it on their own". Really? So it is more risky for them to buy than say Unisom or cough syrup two drugs that are contraindicated for some drugs and health conditions. So by this logic all OTCs are too dangerous for teens to buy. What of teen parents? Should they then be barred from buying baby medicine for their child? Are they too stupid to figure out the OTC meds then too? I could go down this rabbit hole all day but I won't because this is not why parents and right wing religious groups don't want young women to have access to Plan B. It is about perceived morality.
There is a perception that back in the day we didn't have teens sleeping with each other before marriage. It wasn't until we had birth control and condoms that teens felt bold enough to sin openly and carry their bastard spawn to term (turning snark off). That now teen pregnancy is worse than ever before. Yet those aren't the facts. Teen pregnancy is actually at the lowest point its been in decades. The teen birth rate in 1957 was 96.3 per 1000 teen girls age 15-19 in 2011 it was 31.3 per 1000 teen girls. My point is the "good old days" weren't so damn good and things like Plan B, condoms, abortion, and birth control aren't making girls more likely to be teen moms in fact THEY ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE TEEN MOMS THAN EVER! So I don't want to hear about how over the counter Plan B will make girls irresponsible or slutty. Let's be real that isn't what this is about. This is about parents who don't want to recognize their children grow up and become sexual with or without THEIR CONSENT. I get it I have kids, I have daughters no one wants their children to be sexually active young but give your kids credit. If they are going to the store to get Plan B and condoms that IS being responsible it is just being responsible for something that makes US uncomfortable.
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