Plan B: Need Doctor Rx For Teens

[dales]

Sorry, Gob....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12 ... t=1&f=1001

[Gob]

In a surprising twist, the Obama administration has overruled the Food and Drug Administration and will not allow teenage girls to buy the emergency contraceptive Plan B One-Step without a prescription.

You really are uptight about contraception over there aren't you?

[The Hen]

Apart from condoms, spermicides and caps, name one form of contraception in Oz or the UK that you can get withOUT a prescription?

[loCAtek]

Wow, no way.
You need to take that pill within 72 hours of the culpable carelessness. I can never get any kind of health care, outside of the emergency room, that fast.
The only way that could work, is if on one of the teenager's gynecological visits, it was requested ahead of time ...and if the parent isn't teaching them about proper birth control, in the first place, you think they're going to do that?

[Guinevere]

Because condoms never break?

Happened to me, and then I was stressed and late and stressed more and even later. Would have been nice to have something to assure myself I wouldn't get pregnant (and thank goodness I didn't) even when I took all the proper precautions.

Oh, and Hen, here you need a scrip for a cap too.

[loCAtek]

Exactly, if it had been available to get over the counter, without a prescription, you could have met that window of 72 hours, and saved yourself some stress.

[Gob]

In a decision critics said could only be explained by politics, Sebelius ruled that women younger than 17 will still need a prescription to get Plan B, which is sometimes called the morning after pill.

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/ab ... -to-plan-b

Why under 17 I wonder?

[Gob]

Having said that, you do have something right

According to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare has spent more than $240 million of taxpayer money on penis pumps for elderly men over the past decade, and will surpass a quarter of a billion dollars this year for costs since 2001.

The cost to taxpayers for the pumps more than quadrupled during that period, from a low of $11 million in 2001 to a high of more than $47 million in 2010. And these represent only the costs for external devices, technically classified as “Male Vacuum Erection Systems,” not implantable devices or oral drugs such as Viagra.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-art ... enis-pumps

[Sean]

Apart from condoms, spermicides and caps, name one form of contraception in Oz or the UK that you can get withOUT a prescription?

The Rhythm Method.

[dales]

coitus interptus

[Scooter]

That isn't contraception, it's Russian roulette.

[Lord Jim]

An aspirin....

Held tightly between the knees...

Works every time...

(acknowledgement to Ann Landers)

[Beer Sponge]

Apart from condoms, spermicides and caps, name one form of contraception in Oz or the UK that you can get withOUT a prescription?

Up the bum, no babies!

[Scooter]

That's how a lot of teens are spreading HIV and other infections these days.

I can see both sides of this actually. While people should not be denied access to appropriate birth control just because they are teenagers, oral contraceptives are definitely not for everyone, and there is a reason why doctors take a thorough history and do appropriate examinations before prescribing them. Adults might be considered to be able to consent to those risks without medical supervision, teenagers, perhaps not so much. But requiring a prescription becomes a barrier if getting in to see a doctor quickly enough is not possible, so...

[rubato]

When it comes right down to it Obama is really a centrist moderate on most issues.

On a global scale he would be considered a conservative.

yrs,
rubato

[loCAtek]

Well, Plan B isn't necessarily birth control, no more than medical abortion is.

It's a recourse when birth control fails. If you are not using birth control in the first place, that's a failure of communication and/or education.


ETA: I don't see this requirement fostering communication; girls who haven't received proper sex education, aren't going to suddenly want to talk to their parents, in order to obtain a prescription, even in this situation. Likely a teenager, will wait and 'hope for the best'. If anything it will still lead to illegal abortions and/or teenage pregnancy.

[Scooter]

Plan B does not cause abortion. It interferes with ovulation and/or fertilization in order to prevent conception. You are confusing it with RU486, which can be used to induce abortion in early pregnancy.

And no one said anything about requiring a girl to talk to her parents. Any discussions she has with a physician about birth control are confidential.

[loCAtek]

I understand that, however birth control is birth[perhaps, conception would be the better word?]/STD PREvention, whereas Plan B and medical abortion are post-conception responses.

Responses to lack of contraception, or its failure.

More often, contraception is neglected, rather than failed, in conception/STD cases.

Meaning communication/education was the highest factor in failure, preceding the need for post-conception responses.

[Guinevere]

No, PlanB is not post-CONCEPTION. Scooter just said, it PREVENTS conception. It is certainly post-coitus contraception, but it is still contraception (preventing conception) just like the pill or a condom.

From what I've heard, the side effects are no picnic, either.

[loCAtek]

Very well, post-coitus contraception, but the rest of my post still stands.

Add to that the side-effects...