Emergency contraception:
risk reduction at the Last Chance Saloon
Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics called on all US pediatricians to counsel all their adolescent patients about post-coital contraception and make advance prescriptions for it available to girls under 17. The move came as no surprise. The AAP Committee on Adolescence has been advocating over-the-counter sales -- or, failing that, advance prescriptions -- of the morning after pill for all those in its purview for nearly a decade, as has the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The main product in question (Plan B One Step) is a power-pack of the synthetic hormone progestin. It is designed to prevent ovulation but it can also act after ovulation and after fertilisation -- meaning that it can cause an early abortion. And that is not the only problem with “emergency contraception”.
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- The reckless teen years ...
- How will emergency contraception affect girls' health? ...
- A risky business ...
- Where's the evidence for lower teen pregnancy rates? ...
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- They really seem to think there is no alternative. It’s risk reduction or public health Armageddon.
- Moreover, they intend to force all health providers into this mould with their talk of “duties” which may not be “violated” by doctors who conscientiously object to this scheme.
- But risk avoidance through abstinence is a real alternative, if only the professional bodies would throw their weight behind it.
- As the American College of Pediatricians’ paper on the risks of non marital sex concludes, referring to some of the evidence,
- “This is not an impractical or unattainable goal…
- Both parents and professionals must raise the primary public health principle of risk avoidance to its proper place in the promotion of optimal sexual health.”
- Nothing less is worth offering to young people, who have so much to lose from sex before marriage -- even without the babies.
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