Plan B

Plan B

Both sides of the hoopla over whether to allow girls 17 or younger to purchase what is basically a morning after contraception pill, which must be used within 72 hours to be effective, have some good points.  But first we must concede that this pill is safe to use, and apparently the science indicates that it is.

Let me point out first that we have four daughters.  Although now they are certainly beyond the age of beginning to make such decision for themselves, I have a certain bias toward parents.  After all, parents are responsible for their children through to the age of their 18^th birthday, which certainly indicates a great amount of parental anxiety, and in my mind, rightly so.  If the parents have a really great relationship with their daughters, the girls probably will not need a Plan B, but if for some ugly reason, like rape happens to them, their parents will be right there with them and probably buying Plan B for the girl.

On the other hand I have enough experience in this world to know that not all young girls have parents, or other caregivers, whom they can trust with such intimate knowledge of their behaviors.  In this case, a girl ought to be able to fend for herself, which just might include the purchase of Plan B.  Since Plan B is so expensive, it is doubtful if most girls under the age of 17 can indiscriminately pop on down to the drugstore and purchase a whole lot of boxes of these pills if the pills became available to girls under the age of 18.

And yet these are the girls who will need access to Plan B the most.  We hear constantly about the evils of abortion, and I am certainly not one who believes in indiscriminate abortion, either.  However, if a young girl gets pregnant, the only alternatives are carrying a baby to term and putting the child up for adoption, or having an abortion.  Forcing a young girl to carry a baby to term is, in my mind, not a good proposition.  She is not mature enough to know how to care for a baby, or to recognize that a baby is a 24/7 proposition for 18 years!  And beyond, if need be.  If she opts to carry the baby to term, and if her parents are at all responsible, then they have the potential responsibility of raising another family.  They may or may not be emotionally or physically fit to take this on.

This is one of those times where one tends to decide an issue based on personal experience or religious conviction which may not be the same personal experience or conviction of many other young girls.  We all need to take into account the reality of the life experiences of others, and not judge an issue based on our own biases.  These biases may be perfectly valid for our own experience, but not perhaps for others.  Decisions must be based on what is best for all concerned at the emotionally charged time.

This is such an emotionally charged issue that I, for one, am glad I am not making the policy decisions.