Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Fri, Aug 25 2006
Plan B isn't the problem
I can never quite understand the reasoning process behind the attempt to control morality by picking apart the details of an issue and legislating them into tinier and tinier pieces. Conservative folks have been adament that there be an age limit to prevent females under age 18 from obtaining Plan B pills without a prescription.
What would prevent adults from buying the pills and sharing them younger teens? Will the parents of teen boys give the pills to their sons so that the sons can give them to prospective partners? Will the fact that older males have the ability to buy Plan B pills make older men more attractive to teen girls?
If we make it illegal for an adult to give the pills to someone under the age of 18 we need a whole new set of details to go with that legislation. The list of details for the ways people will work to get around all this will get longer and longer.
And how long will it be until the parents of a young, pregnant teen want to sue somebody because their daughter was denied a Plan B pill at a pharmacy? Along with all the other human nature equations we have that whole slaphappy lawsuit mentality that has crept into our society.
For those who think doctors won't be sympathetic to a teen girl's situation in all this, think again. I was a teen when birth control pills were just coming into popular use. Quite a number of teen girls were given prescriptions for birth control pills to help regulate their periods or to combat severe menstrual cramps. Many moms truthfully breathed a sigh of relief that the pills would also keep them from worrying about their daughter becoming pregnant if she engaged in sex or was raped.
Humans seem to want a quick fix for everything. But some issues require backing up a few steps in order to get to the real core of an issue. If we spend all our time infighting—when what we all really want is good health and a good life for all these kids—we're going to have to face the fact that teens have sexual urges and that they have the basic body parts to follow through on those urges.
All this talk about the exact moment that pregnancy technically takes place and how some forms of birth control are technically abortions because of this-or-that change in the body and all the constant arguing over the exact moment that new life really begins is just a modern-day smoke-screen on our part, so that we don't have to deal with the real issues. The teens already know this much: adults need to grow up and act like responsible, caring people instead of passing a law for everything we don't have the power to control in other people and for every detail we don't have all the answers to.
posted at: 11:04 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
I can never quite understand the reasoning process behind the attempt to control morality by picking apart the details of an issue and legislating them into tinier and tinier pieces. Conservative folks have been adament that there be an age limit to prevent females under age 18 from obtaining Plan B pills without a prescription.
What would prevent adults from buying the pills and sharing them younger teens? Will the parents of teen boys give the pills to their sons so that the sons can give them to prospective partners? Will the fact that older males have the ability to buy Plan B pills make older men more attractive to teen girls?
If we make it illegal for an adult to give the pills to someone under the age of 18 we need a whole new set of details to go with that legislation. The list of details for the ways people will work to get around all this will get longer and longer.
And how long will it be until the parents of a young, pregnant teen want to sue somebody because their daughter was denied a Plan B pill at a pharmacy? Along with all the other human nature equations we have that whole slaphappy lawsuit mentality that has crept into our society.
For those who think doctors won't be sympathetic to a teen girl's situation in all this, think again. I was a teen when birth control pills were just coming into popular use. Quite a number of teen girls were given prescriptions for birth control pills to help regulate their periods or to combat severe menstrual cramps. Many moms truthfully breathed a sigh of relief that the pills would also keep them from worrying about their daughter becoming pregnant if she engaged in sex or was raped.
Humans seem to want a quick fix for everything. But some issues require backing up a few steps in order to get to the real core of an issue. If we spend all our time infighting—when what we all really want is good health and a good life for all these kids—we're going to have to face the fact that teens have sexual urges and that they have the basic body parts to follow through on those urges.
All this talk about the exact moment that pregnancy technically takes place and how some forms of birth control are technically abortions because of this-or-that change in the body and all the constant arguing over the exact moment that new life really begins is just a modern-day smoke-screen on our part, so that we don't have to deal with the real issues. The teens already know this much: adults need to grow up and act like responsible, caring people instead of passing a law for everything we don't have the power to control in other people and for every detail we don't have all the answers to.
posted at: 11:04 | category: /Religious and Spiritual | link to this entry
