Bill said, in comment #17922
“If men could get pregnant, Plan B would be a sacrament.”

I don’t know exactly what he means by “sacrement”, but I’m pretty damn sure that if men could get pregnant Plan B would be available in dispensers in the men’s room of gas stations, etc., for half a buck a pop, just like condoms...(Maybe I’m dating myself on the price...)

I am responding to comment 18552.  There are many reasons not to rush adulthood.  Sex, what is considered an ‘adult’ act, is something that we ALL experience, at one time or another,in one WAY or another, and to keep acting as if it is something to put off for as long as possible and to ‘save’ is ludicrous.  Although I do believe we should teach our children to wait until they feel the time is right for them.  Again, we spend most of our lives in adulthood--why rush!?  But to put an age limit on when it is ‘appropriate’ to engage in sexual relations is absurd, as each individual develops (emotionally, spiritually, and physically) at a different rate.  However, as someone already pointed out in an earlier comment, we live in a society that constantly pushes adult images onto children.  When young boys, who incidentally are the other half of these potential sexual equations, are exposed to mostly naked women in provocative poses and situations in every magazine, television show and movie, we cannot expect them to see women as anything other than a sexual object.  And we also cannot admonish young women when they act like sex kittens at the ripe old age of 13, when these images are their role models.  Perhaps instead of raging against birth control/sexual relations of minors, we should rage against the society that does nothing but push them towards adulthood and the bedroom.
And as you mentioned ‘take(ing) care of the rest of the population’, if you ‘right wingers’ would indeed TAKE CARE of the population by putting government funded programs in place to TAKE CARE of the unwanted pregnancies once these precious fetuses came into the world, perhaps that would enhance the ‘family values’ of this great nation.

Fear of pregnancy used to be a powerful reason not to have sex at a young age.  You leftwingers are obsessed with making sure that girls of any age can have sex without consequences which you, not rightwingers, view as punishment. Giving birth is the worst thing that can happen.

But that’s alright… as you silly twits stop breeding the rise in birth rates of people that hate us (ALL of us) will take care of the rest of the population.

To comment on comment 17744: the morning-after pill is less about pushing teenagers to have sex and more about preventing an unwanted eighteen year commitment.

Personally, I think magazines such as Maxim and FHM and some religious groups do more to push teens to have sex than any sort of contraception.

Assuming that Plan B over-the-counter is imminent, let’s discuss another aspect of access - it is EXPENSIVE!!!  Plan B retails for $40 at my local Rite-Aid, and although if taken correctly to prevent a pregnancy the $40 is well worth it, let’s not forget that many of the women who will need it may not be able to afford it if it is no longer covered by their insurance plans...assuming that they have one.  Will Plan B continue to be covered by Medicaid, private insurance, and available at an affordable rate by Planned Parenthood?

When I worked at a family planning clinic in Niagara Falls, we mainly told women almost out of the 72-hour range who could not get their scripts filled for whatever reason to cross the border into Canada and purchase it there.  It is not just seniors that are forced to leave the country for access to their medications!

Thank you for adding your voice on efforts to punish young people for their sexual behavior.  As I wrote on my blog, http://debrahaffner.blogspot.com saying that the availability of contraception causes teenagers to have sex is like saying that if I carry an umbrella in my car, I’m hoping it is going to rain. 

Rev. Debra W. Haffner

“What about just making them responsible for their actions?”

We’re not talking a night in jail here, or a fine, or 100 hours of community service. We’re talking about a consequence that literally lasts a lifetime. There are already far, far too many children in this world whose parents can’t afford them, don’t want them, and can’t or won’t take care of them. If a person is RESPONSIBLE, then they know their own limitations, as if those limitations are that they can’t raise another human being (meaning they have at least a vague understanding of what it entails) then I do not see how that can possibly be interpreted as irresponsible.

Ellen is right to remind us that the morning after pill, when used right, is as safe as aspirin. St. Joseph aspirin has been used as the Vatican approved birth control pill for years. If the morning after pill is used like one must use the St. Joseph aspirin, it prevents pregnancy and abortion at the same time. The girl must remember to keep it held tightly between the knees at the most vulnerable time. It should not be swallowed.

You would think that preventing a pregnancy that may end up being aborted would be welcomed on both sides in this debate, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Could it be that by preventing abortions - the far right wouldn’t have that to scream about? As far as 16 year olds not being able to buy it OTC - how many of them don’t have an 18 year old sister/friend who would be able to buy it for them?

If men could get pregnant, Plan B would be a sacrament.

Its not “pushing” nor “encouraging” sexual behavior. Its really a question of priorities, that is, which is more important to prevent: the victim-less crime of sexual behavior, or the possibility of either an abortion or an unwanted birth. Since, from a Right-Wing Evangelical position, abortion is tantamount to murder and, as we can all agree, an unwanted baby has much higher chances of being abused and/or neglected, it appears fairly obvious that a world with widely available Plan-B is better than one without.

Which is not to mention that the idea of punishing the “sin” of underage sex is a strictly religous concept and should not even be considered in our government (remeber the first amendment?)…

see
http://www.fda.gov/CDER/drug/infopage/planB/planBQandA.htm

Plan B is not an abortifacient.  The pills prevent the union of sperm and egg or, if the union has taken place, the implantation of that egg within the uterus.  If the egg has been implanted within the uterus, the pills do not work.

Why is this considered punishing people for having sex.  What about just making them responsible for their actions?  I think that is what the first poster was actually identifying.

Questions:
1.  Does “Plan B” abort the conception or prevent it?

2.  Why is encouraging, even pushing, teens into sex so important?  Don’t they have enough peer pressure issues?

Collin

http://evangelicalperspective.blogspot.com

yep the right wingers are all rich people with the “perfect suburban family” where nothing goes wrong. well FYI RWers...... theres alot more familes that arent perfect. not every family gets along. I dont get along with my family. so not every young lady is gonna have parents to stand by her and buy her plan b! and what’s worsde is if they had sex with her! so suck up your greed and start helping america’s youth by backing up the pill for all ages.

Years ago I had to do a quick study of everyday life in early colonial America.  To my surprise - given that Puritan mores and religion ruled the day - over 70 percent of marriages produced an offspring short of nine months later. (Interesting that today about 70 percent of Americans have sex before they’re 18) It seems the only difference in the sex lives of our young between then and now is then the pregnant got married. It also seems that sex has been around a long and it isn’t going to go away just because there isn’t a little pill to take the next morning.