<p>Welcome, I wasn’t sure either–had to look it up ;).</p>
<p>areis,</p>
<p>I understand your pov about religous concerns, but… isn’t this just another choice someone can and can’t make? Should it be eliminated as an option because of one group’s beliefs? </p>
<p>Why assume that a school nurses opinion on contraception would be any different than a priest’s? It isn’t an automatic aspect to the situation. You’ve given validity to one segment of person and disregarded another. Where I live right now the priests are trying to sell off their parishes en mass to pay for their crimes against young children over the decades. I really don’t know if I would give them more credibility in any situation, given their past history. Besides if a child felt that strongly about a fertilized egg, Why would she be in the nurses office inquiring about plan B? How could the nurse influence anything if the child doesn’t step through the door? </p>
<p>“Some of what I’ve been skirting but have not discussed is the fact that a lot of teens have no idea how these medications work.”</p>
<p>Google anyone. 
</p>
<p>Our kids have access to more information than we could imagine. </p>
<p>These types of medications have been used in europe for some time with limited side effects. The problem with any stats given on reproductive issues even from our FDA is they are clouded with religous concerns that skew the information to enhance the risk.</p>
<p>I didn’t have health clinics in my high school, but I did go to Planned Parenthood for ob/gyn care for several years & they were so caring- informative- & supportive.
Way more helpful than when I actually had insurance and could go to an ob/gyn
( I had to go through 2 before I found one I liked)</p>
<p>What exactly are you all so afraid of? That your daughter will have sex, not tell you, and not get pregnant? If that’s the worst case…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Aries, you need to read some files from various law enforcement and social service agencies on the subject of parents. </p>
<p>Not just you, but everyone who is in favor of broad-brush “parental notification” laws. Yeah, you can require a parent’s permission for a kid to play varsity soccer…the kid’s life isn’t going to be ruined, whatever the parents decide, either way. The stakes in the subject at hand are devastating and awfully permanent.</p>
<p>
I agree. We’re not talking about something fleeting like soccer or a field trip, and that’s why parents should be involved. In addition, it strikes me as strange to assume that parents would make lousy decisions but the minor child of those same parents would make an informed and intelligent decision. </p>
<p>While there might be a rare exception, it seems to me that the reverse would be true and that the parents and child together would make better decisions than the minor child would make alone.</p>
<p>When it comes to a decision as to whether to bear a child (or risk bearing a child), the “parent” is the girl who is potentially pregnant. It is a personal decision, because it is the girl who will bear the burden and become responsible for the result… and if the pregnancy goes to term, the result is a living person, and 5 or 10 years down the line it isn’t going to matter to that child that the mother who didn’t want her was only 15 at the time. </p>
<p>Pregnancy by its nature is an adult problem and an adult responsibility. The problem of sex and pregnancy arises because teenagers are children in adult bodies, with adult urges and desires. We can hope that they will refrain and wait until they are older, but once they have started to engage in consensual sex, they are going to have to deal with the adult physical consequences of their actions - and that includes risk of pregnancy and STD’s. </p>
<p>It would be ideal if teenagers who are sexually active felt comfortable in confiding in their parents, but there is an inherent conflict: most parents do not want their teenagers having sex, so therefore it is not the kind of thing that kids feel comfortable discussing. The same is true of underage drinking or drug use: parents usually don’t approve, kids know that, so if they do it, they try to conceal it from their parents. </p>
<p>Parental control and involvement doesn’t magically continue until age 18 and then stop. It is a gradual transition. Good parents recognize when it is time to ease the controls and allow the transition to occur. In some areas the kids begin to assume adult-level responsibilities: for example, they may get a driver’s license and have their own car, or they may get a job. I wouldn’t expect my kids’ employer to have to call me to get permission or to give me notice before hiring or firing my kid - I know that employees are treated like adults, even if the employees are under age 18. </p>
<p>Whether the services are provided in school or not is not really the issue: the issue is that a 16 year old who wants contraception is facing the exact same problem as an 18 year old who want contraception, and should have the same rights in terms of seeking medical assistance.</p>
<p>"Where I live 14 and 15 year old girls were getting pregnant to move out from home in the projects. The government would set them up with their own places and give them money to live on. "</p>
<p>That happens here a lot, or the girls want someone to love them and choose to have a baby to get that love. The pregnancies here aren’t always unwanted or unintended.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the presumption that parents would do anything other than what’s absolutely best for their children. The vast majority of parents are loving, supportive, dedicated people and I can’t imagine anyone better suited to help a child make a life-altering decision.</p>
<p>
So the parents take care of the small stuff and the gov’t decides the big stuff? Notification doesn’t give the parents decision-making power, but tells them that their child received medical treatment. I strongly oppose having one set of rules for most every type of medical treatment and special rules because sex is involved. Fully agree with Zoosermom - why are we assuming that parents should be kept in the dark? If you want your kids to tell you but don’t mind otherwise, fine - but why impose that on others? </p>
<p>Maybe I haven’t been explicit about this, but I strongly object to governmental influences here. If Planned Parenthood wants to give out Plan B without parental consent, fine - but schools (gov’t bodies) are NOT the place to do it. I don’t care if it’s more convenient - the gov’t should not be usurping the authority of parents to advance its social policy.</p>
<p>Aries:</p>
<p>There are so many areas in which the government is “usurping the authority of parents” including with sex education, standardized testing, curriculum, and so on and so forth.</p>
<p>I don’t think that providing Plan means that parents “should” be kept in the dark; it does mean that they <em>may</em> be kept in the dark, Not ideal, I agree, although there is a huge difference between should and may.I agree with EK that a parental consent form would be a good idea.</p>
<p>Plan B- for those who believe that implantation is when a pregnancy begins not fertilization- isn’t a life changing decision
It acts as a contraceptive- preventing the girl from becoming pregnant- not ending a pregnancy
How it generally acts by preventing the sperm from meeting the egg or preventing the egg from leaving the ovary.</p>
<p>I took a morning after pill when I was raped as a young woman- I was able to get it from Planned Parenthood, but I had a car, and a flexible job to be able to get there/</p>
<p>A high school age girl may be more likely to get help from her school clinic, than seek out an additional provider, particulary if she convinces herself that she doesn’t have any risk of getting pregnant.</p>
<p>A good friend of mine- who was a “good girl” in high school, was talked into having sex by her boyfriend( he told her he was dying of leukemia)- if she had, had a clinic at school, she might have gone to them for advice. However she didnt & she didn’t acknowledge her pregnancy until a teacher at school sat her down and talked to her when she was** 6** months pregnant.
She then finally told her parents- and she had a late term abortion, but IMO, it would have been much better to have had something available to prevent the pregnancy in the first place.</p>
<p>"Fully agree with Zoosermom - why are we assuming that parents should be kept in the dark? If you want your kids to tell you but don’t mind otherwise, fine - but why impose that on others? "</p>
<p>I really and sincerely worry about the girls for whom Plan B is contraindicated. As an example of why: my co-worker’s daughter yesterday received some medical testing. She is 19 and has completed her freshman year at college and returned home. The testing was planned to include a certain dye to which the girl is, apparently, allergic. It took Mom’s intervention to make sure that other arrangements were made. The daughter is still naive enough to think that her doctor could possibly know everything and didn’t act as a true partner in her healthcare. Again, sincerely and not idealogically, I don’t believe that most teenagers are competent to make medical decisions on their own behalf. If the alternative is to have upset parents, then so be it. That’s one of the natural consequences of making bad choices. Consequences come from every mistake in life, no? For the vast majority of kids, ****ing off or disappointing mom and dad (even seriously) is not the worst thing in the world.</p>
<p>"She then finally told her parents- and she had a late term abortion, but IMO, it would have been much better to have had something available to prevent the pregnancy in the first place. "</p>
<p>I agree with you wholeheartedly on that. It really is a tough issue, isn’t it? I so respect the posters who are seeming to grapple with all of this too. I guess I don’t think there is ultimately a perfect answer for everyone, but it does give the opportunity for some of us to sit down with our kids and talk some more.</p>
<p>“Pregnancy by its nature is an adult problem and an adult responsibility”</p>
<p>As a labor and delivery nurse, I can tell you that nothing could be farther from the truth. In concept, yes it should be an adult responsibility, but I have seen 11 and 12 year olds in all stages of pregnancy. I can’t imagine an 11 or 12 year old making decisions without the guidance of a parent or guardian.
The concept that because pregnancy involves another life and therefore parents are not needed in the decision making and treatment plan is frightening to me. I deal with adolescents who have no idea about their health histories, allergies and meds they are taking.
All treatments and medications carry some degree of risk. Parents need to be involved and aware of the care their daughters are receiving. If a complication should arise, not knowing what their daughter has been given or undergone can cause serious delays in treatment.
Yes it is an adult responsibility and that is why you need an adult involved.</p>
<p>a 19 yr old is an adult- you can join the military at a much younger age and kill people for your govt- taking reponsiblity for your health care isn’t that big of a deal, obviously she is intelligent enough to attend college- she should have been taught to be an active consumer since she was old enough to see the dr by herself- from about 14 years old. </p>
<p>Legally the school can’t notify the parents if over 18, unless the student signs a release specifically instructing them to do so.</p>
<p>I have been on my own since I was 17 & procured my own health care since about 16 so perhaps I am more interested than some-but I think it is everyones reponsiblity to be able to take care of themselves- certainly adult age college students.</p>
<p>I understand the desire of some parents to prefer that they have more control over what type of information that their children recieve, but I don’t agree at forcing the providers to notify the parents first. IMO if the children don’t tell their parents & if the parents are not aware of what their children are concerned about, then there are bigger issues than parental release forms.</p>
<p>A student who is restricted to seeing a provider with their parent, may keep information from their parent and their provider that is critical to their health care, teens who have the freedom to know that information will be kept private, may be more likely to discuss concerns that the parents wouldn’t approve of.</p>
<p>Keymom:</p>
<p>I understand your concerns. We, here, are all parents trying to do the best for our children. But, though we may not be different from the overwhelming majority of parnts, there are exceptions. And exceptions are what Plan B is about.
Where were the parents of the 11 or 12 years olds when the girls had unprotected sex resulting in pregnancy? And why, after the girls had unprotected sex, did they not talk to their parents? I have to assume that these cases were, with few exceptions, the results of parental abuse, neglect, or indifference and that the girls did not have good rapport with their parents.
11 and 12 years olds may be too ignorant to even know how they got pregnant, let alone that they are pregnant–until too late for Plan B anyway. Could there be a solution involving a cutoff age? Or a talk with the school nurse rather than the automatic dispensation of Plan B?</p>
<p>“Could there be a solution involving a cutoff age? Or a talk with the school nurse rather than the automatic dispensation of Plan B?”</p>
<p>Those are really good ideas and could probably be workable. We moms should run the world. We’d get together and come up with a perfect plan.</p>
<p>What about some discretion for the school nurse? In other words, if in her professional opinion the kid is not equipped to make the decision or if the nurse suspects outside pressure, could she have the right to not dispense the medication? Or if she (or he, of course) knew or suspected that this had happened multiple times within the window of danger could the nurse refuse to dispense?</p>
<p>Aries, some wonderful theories that are ruined by some very ugly facts.<br>
Assuming that a student <em>knows</em> to contact Planned Parenthood–a dubious proposition in many cases (“Planned Parenthood? What’s that? I wasn’t planning on it!”)–access may still be beyond a student’s reasonable capability in terms of availability, distance, and transportation…and that doesn’t even get into the problems of communities where everyone knows everyone’s business and word would “get around town” in less than an hour. Then we get to the more numerous than you might suppose parents who are absusive, have substance abuse issues affecting their judgment and tempers, or are otherwise either practically or emotionally incompetent. Every “the parents should be involved” sentiment subsumes a world view that the vast majority of parents in such a situation would be thoughtful, reasonable, caring people and jointly arrive at a good decision with their child. It ain’t so. </p>
<p>Beyond simple emotional or physical neglect, while only a minute percentage of families may have a Third World outlook towards “honor killings,” there are substantially more families where other, less lethal but still malicious, punitive attitudes occur.</p>
<p>The kid needs a local place that they’re familiar with where they can turn for immediate assistance, with anonymity if need be. In the best of all possible worlds, I agree that parent-child conversations at such times <em>should</em> take place and I’d like to think that in any event in many/most cases, such conversations still would take place. Unfortunately, we do not live in the best of all possible worlds.</p>
<p>The school is the obvious environment. </p>
<p>And I see a difference between governmental intrusion and governmental acquiescence.</p>
<p>Age issues, such as 11- and 12-year-olds getting pregnant, pose additional problems as well and I don’t know how/where to draw various lines.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that there aren’t any perfect solutions.</p>