Emeregency Contraception For Teenagers

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     There are various forms of emergency contraception – medicines that will prevent pregnancy if taken within 120 hours after unprotected intercourse. It has been shown that if emergency contraception is available to teenagers the rate of teen pregnancy and, subsequently, the need for teen abortions is reduced. In most US states, teenagers older than 17 can get emergency contraception without a prescription but adolescents under 17 have to obtain a prescription. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Obstetricians – Gynecologists (ACOG) have long supported making the emergency oral contraceptive called Plan B One–Step an over-the-counter medication available without prescription to any age group. The FDA agreed with this in 2011, but the agency was overruled by the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services despite the fact that Plan B has been proven to be safe and effective in preventing pregnancies in 80% of cases of unprotected intercourse.

     The latest recommendation from the AAP encourages physicians to give girls under 17 a prescription for the “morning-after pill” before they need them. Some physicians and some parents hold ethical objections to teenage sex or sex outside of marriage. Others have moral objections to contraception in general. The AAP cautions physicians to “be aware of the ways in which the underlying beliefs they bring to clinical practice affect the care that they provide”. The Academy says that if pediatricians refuse to give emergency contraception treatment or information to teenagers on the basis of conscience, they are violating their duty to their adolescent and young adult patients and are morally obligated to refer the patient to a physician who will.

     13% of 15 year-olds, 43% of teens from 15 to 19 and 70% of 19 year-olds have sex, and the rate of teenage sexual assault is as high as 10%. Approximately 8 female adolescents out of 100 who have unprotected sex will get pregnant. If emergency contraception is used appropriately in those 100 cases, only 2 of those teens would get pregnant. Studies have repeatedly shown that availability to contraception and information about contraception does not increase sexual activity among teenagers. Physicians need to stop putting their own moral or political beliefs ahead of the welfare of their adolescent patients.