What Is The Real Impact of Plan B?April 29th, 2009
Is Plan B a responsible form of contraception or a "reckless sex pill?"
by Rebecca Edwards
A federal judge's recent ruling that the "morning after pill," Plan B, can now be sold directly to 17-year-olds without parental consent, has brought new attention to this controversial form of contraception. In Utah and throughout the US, it was expected that there would be a significant decrease in unplanned pregnancies and abortions after Plan B was made available without a prescription in 2003. However, that has not been the case.
Teen births in Utah account for approximately 11 percent of all births in the state. With an average of over 5,600 teen pregnancies in Utah per year and a full 11 percent of those resulting in abortion, it seems like Plan B is making little, if any, impact. The largest impact may be on the number of people having unsafe sex that results in a potential pregnancy scare.
Does Plan B Prevent Abortions & Teenage Pregnancy?
Between 2000 and 2004, there were 16,668 abortions performed in Utah--an average of 4,167/year. According to the Utah Health Department's most recent stats, there were 3,516 abortions in 2007. While that shows a slight decrease, Planned Parenthood estimates that they administer almost 39,000 cycles of Plan B throughout Utah each year, indicating that abortions may be on the decline but the number of potential unplanned pregnancies seems large.
still account for 11 percent
of all births in Utah
In Utah, it's easy to come up with a few reasons why Plan B may not be making the difference lawmakers had hoped it would. Contraception of any kind is not allowed to be taught in sex education classes--even in high school. One early-college high school junior who took health through Weber State University said that her class discussed birth control, but her friends who took health through the high school did not have any exposure to birth control options.
"The professor made all of the high school students in the class come forward and make sure that we were okay with learning about birth control," she said. "Apparently, the professor had previous students come up personally and inform her that they were too young to learn about what she was teaching."
If Planned Parenthood's estimates are accurate, that's nearly 107 unplanned pregancies per day in Utah. Not all cycles of Plan B are administered to teens, but it's alarming to imagine what would be happening in our state if this option weren't available. Yet not everyone sees Plan B as a positive. There is much concern about the "morning after pill" taking away accountability, and creating a feeling of permisiveness when it comes to sex.
"The morning after pill eliminates common sense," one man said. "It makes it seem that much easier to decide to have unsafe sex. If all she has to do after is take a pill and she looks fine and acts fine and you don't have to hold her hand or anything, then why not?"
The state's commitment to keeping sex education focused on abstinence and avoiding talk of birth control has to be contributing to the rate of teen pregnancy throughout the Beehive state.
Michael Weight, a high school junior, said, "Obviously, just teaching about abstinence isn't working because, apparently, teens are going to have sex. They need to teach other ways of preventing pregnancy. I wouldn't abandon talk of abstinence, but kids need to know about contraception and how to use it properly." He continued, "Maybe if students were taught how to use birth control we wouldn't have so many parents flabbergasted at why their kid came home pregnant."
Supporting Weight's claim, the other high school junior I spoke to shared the fact that one of the girls she worked with at a local restaurant recently had to quit her job because she became pregnant. "She's, like, 17 and every one of her sisters had a baby when they were teenagers, and now she's doing it too."
Another road block that may be contributing to Plan B's success could be the fact that just because the morning after pill is legally available, it doesn't mean your neighborhood pharmacist has to sell it to you.
"It is completely up to the discretion of the pharmacist whether or not they want to sell someone Plan B," one pharmacy technician said. Not only has she seen pharmacists refuse to sell the drug, but in retail pharmacies in grocery stores she has seen people be unable to purchase because they just barely turned 18, and the computer won't recognize their birth date as valid for the purchase.
Whether it is the lack of education or the accessibility of the drug, it is clear that Plan B hasn't been the god-send that some had hoped it would be. Whether making it accessible to 17-year-olds without parental consent will make an impact remains to be seen.
Some people interviewed for this article, requested to remain anonymous.
Read a ridiculous College Candy article recommending women stock up on Plan B. The comments on the article demonstrate how the readers have more sense than the author.
