NYC schools handing out morning-after pill without telling parents
Source: Yahoo
Back to school checklist: note books? Check. Class assignments? Check. Plan B morning-after pills? Check. Wait, what? It's true: Students as young as 14 can get birth control at 13 New York City high schools without parental consent.
Although condoms have been provided free for years, this pilot program, unpublicized for the last year, gives students access to oral contraceptives, along with the morning-after pill, which can prevent an unintended pregnancy up to 72 hours after unprotected sex.
Parents can choose to fill out an opt-out form that will exclude their children from the program. Otherwise, students can get birth control from the school nurse confidentially. Prescriptions to oral and injectable birth control are written by city health department doctors. So far, only one to two percent of parents have chosen to opt their kids out of the program.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/nyc-schools-handing-morning-pill-without-parental-consent-172010909.html
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)The parent can opt out as is pointed out as well. So, the only thing parents aren't told is if and when their daughters might get this. I don't see why this is an issue.
melm00se
(4,993 posts)adderall or ritalin prescribed by school district doctors.
Still ok with it?
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Still got a problem with it?
rainlillie
(1,095 posts)and she experienced severe cramping and heavy bleeding. I'm glad the parents can opt -out.
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Having a bad period versus having a baby? No contest. Bring on full access to the morning after pill.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Adderall and Ritalin are long-term, potentially dangerous drugs that can only be taken with medical supervision. Unless a girl has a rather rare problem with hormones (and that kind of problem is just as prevalent with common OTC drugs like Tylenol), the morning after pill is a safe, one-shot that's supposed to be available to ANY woman on request. A kid doesn't need Adderall or Ritalin in an emergency. She will need the morning after pill in an emergency. If schools did start prescribing drugs like Adderall or Ritalin, it wouldn't be the kids requesting it - that would be the school trying to either impose their use or talking their parents into it (which unfortunately happens already). With the morning after pill, it's a student's choice to avert possibly tragic consequences. Dear gods, the horror that a teenaged girl might show the good judgement needed to avoid ruining her life, and be able to do something about it!
The only thing that would make me happier is if they found a way to open Planned Parenthood clinics, including easy access to abortion, at the schools.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)abolugi
(417 posts)I got birth control in high school without my parents permission and because of that fact I was not a teenage mother.
alp227
(32,036 posts)what if a student suffers an allergic reaction or other adverse side effect from the birth control? Isn't that a good argument for parental notification? I'm not morally opposed to BC (otherwise I'd be posting on a certain other message board) but when it comes to things that can directly affect a minor's health the parent ought to know ahead of time.
Generally, medical issues are best resolved between a patient and physician. I doubt school nurses necessarily have enough authority in the patient/physician relationship.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)for everyone.
The parents who are less worried about allergic reactions and more worried about their sexually active children having easy access to birth control don't have to have their children's options limited because of the concerns of OTHER parents.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)was there adequate notice to parents so they knew they could opt-out? I'm all for it so long as there is adeqaute education and outreach. Doing the program on the DL just sets the schools up for criticism (Like they need more of that).
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Sticks and stones (and newborns) may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. A stealth rollout is just fine, if it keeps abusive, conservative parents from blocking girls' access to emergency birth control. Let them criticize, as long as those young women can get help when they need it.
Schools are getting criticized for teaching evolution, for gods' sakes. Who cares? It's time for schools and legislators and parents to stand up for the kids' ability to get a good education and a shot at growing up intact without a load of baby-baggage.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)v. "let's do this quietly to get around conservative parents"? Sounds like a great trade-off.
I'll pick above-board every time. It is a public program in a public school. No taxpayer, no matter how conservative, deserves to be tricked.
Who cares? I care. As a long-term government employee, including 9 years in public schools, I can tell you that if you want a program to be successful and to last, the way you roll out a program is as important as what the program is. Look at the great success with which the ACA was sold to Americans. I mean, everyone loves it and wants to keep it, right? Not.
Ever been to a school board meeting and seen the members cowed by parents and community members yelling and up in arms about X or Y? I have. And I can tell you, it does not pay to try to trick your constituency. It just doesn't. If your program is good, be proud of it. If you have to hide it, you're not doing something right--and the program will be defunded within a budget year. Believe it.
roddma
(2 posts)Note you said' blocking girls' rights. If this were boys being blocked, it wouldnt even be an issue. 'What are such young kids doing having sex anyway? I am sure no one would say drink and drive to thwart the conservatives. Liberalism doens't mean IMO to let them do as they please. They are minors not women or men. Parents from all walks of life have legal control over them until 18.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)legal control until they are 18. They may have legal control in some ways, but in other ways they do not. Contraception, std, aids tests, all reproductive health care is available for teenagers without parental control or notification, legally (different ages different states I believe). Also some states a teen can see a mental health counselor without any parental notification.
You seem to be saying that teens should not be having sex. And that a teen is not "women or men". Does this mean you feel they shoyld have none of these rights to reproductive health care without parental notification?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Yeah, right.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)don't you?
This just saves girls the bus ride.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)But thanks for checking on my information level.
My comment was about how schools should roll out new programs -- I never said I disagreed with the program. I only argued that poor parental communication can lead to the undoing of a well-intentioned program. I have seen it happen.
You do understand that good programs can be defeated by bad publicity don't you?
Jeez, when did DU become a place where it isn't even OK to discuss the merits of how a program is rolled out? Imagine how you would have treated me had I disagreed with the underlying program (which I don't by the way).
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)publicizing this in the media doesn't mean the parents weren't informed and provided with opt-out forms.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)I said:
"But if it was rolled out "quietly" was there adequate notice to parents so they knew they could opt-out? I'm all for it so long as there is adeqaute education and outreach."
It was a question, a legitimate one, and I stand by it. Maybe every parent received opt-out forms and adeqaute notice of the program, maybe they didn't. The article implied that it was done under the radar, and my comment was directed at that: that if it was done under the radar, that's not good for the long term existence of the program.
How is that so offensive to you? Why are you so itching for a fight?
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)I think you're projecting.
Why were you suggesting that parents weren't informed when it takes about 5 seconds of googling to discover that they were?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_schools_plan_UoW7ke5l2KRwg43nHzt97H
Parents at the 14 schools were sent letters informing them about CATCH. Parents may bar their kids from getting pregnancy tests or contraceptives if they sign and return an opt-out statement.
If they do not, schools can confidentially give the contraception without permission.
An average 1 to 2 percent of parents at each school have returned the opt-out sheets, said DOH spokeswoman Alexandra Waldhorn.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Hello, have you been to DU? It is about having a conversation. The OP starts it, other people comment. I was responding to someone else's comment about the OP. In doing so, I raised an issue raised by the article. DU does not require anyone to read fifty articles on that aren't cited in the OP before making a comment. Many people, by looking at the comments in numerous threads, don't even bother to read the link cited in the OPs. I don't see where your new standard comes from or who gave you the authority to impose it.
As I said previously, I made a relevant comment, and I stand by it. As a long term government employee, including 9 years in public schools, I have seen good programs die because of how they were implemented, rather than the contents of the program. If you find that true statement illegitimate, try explaining why instead of coming up with some bizarre double standard about how I didn't do a thorough enough Google search before responding to the article. That's really reaching--and clearly itching for a fight. You're digging pretty deep to insult me, but seriously, you have said NOTHING that directly addresses or undermines the only point I made: that how programs are implemented matter. So keep it up if you're having fun. But you have diminished my point 0%.
BlueMTexpat
(15,370 posts)According to what I read, the only thing that school nurses distribute without a prescription is the morning-after pill. For birth control, doctors must write prescriptions. That should alleviate the concerns you speak of.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)at pharmacies.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)First of all the headline is wrong. The patients have been notified. Second the medical issues involved are independent for the most part from notification policy. An unknown allergic reaction is not solved by notifying parents on each use. If the parents knew of the allergic response problem, the program notification is sufficient. Finally the reason why parents aren't notified is that use notification will prevent some of these kids from using contraception because of their fear of adverse reactions from their parents.
alp227
(32,036 posts)Totally got the wrong impression about notification.
rainlillie
(1,095 posts).
surrealAmerican
(11,362 posts)... to "directly affect a minor's health" in this case.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)School nurses operate under guidelines set in place by doctors or nurse practitioners, health board, etc.
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)Kids can suffer an allergic reaction or other adverse side effect to ANYTHING, from Tylenol to a food product in their school lunch to some illegal substance shared by friends. "When it comes to things that can directly affect a minor's health the parent ought to know ahead of time." Really? Playing touch football in gym can do that. So can kids sneaking out behind the school for their first drink of Boone's Farm. So can the first attempts at stunt skateboarding, or playing in the bushes behind the gym and running into a snake, or having a shoving match by the lockers. ALL those things a parent will never know about until it's too late, and all are as dangerous or more. But a lot of people take a knee-jerk attitude toward giving a pill that will prevent a tragedy in a young woman's life, as if that's somehow more dangerous than things kids do every single day without parental knowledge or consent.
Reality check: parents can't protect their kids from everything, and it's time for schools and other organizations to stop the hysterical ZOMG-we-might-get-sued overreactions to everything. You look at a risk/reward balance. Schools have made idiotic policies that emergency inhalers must be kept at the nurse's office. That's just stupid on ice, right there. That asthmatic kid might die if the inhaler isn't administered when he needs it, but he isn't going to be hurt if he takes it without supervision. Same with this issue - the incidence of side effects is very small, but the tragedy of having a baby at 15, with all of its medical consequences and risks, is so great that this is a no-brainer.
bhikkhu
(10,718 posts)too many teenage mothers who never really had a choice.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)Any drug can have side-effects on its own or counter-indications when taken with other pharmaceuticals. That they are doing this in some cases without parental or legal guardian consent, the schools had better have their asses legally covered in case a student without that prior consent ends up having a medical emergency (either on school grounds or developing over time and the parents/guardians trace it back to the school) as a result of this program. This isn't like handing out male and female condoms and oral dams (except, of course, for students with latex allergies).
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)birth control to minors.
"Prescriptions to oral and injectable birth control are written by city health department doctors."
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)They have full knowledge of what these students may have been previously prescribed that might interact poorly? I don't believe ANYONE is allowed to view those records without parental/legal guardian consent or a court order, at least not until the minors are either emancipated or otherwise 18... but then there wouldn't be the issue in the first place. And when has a teenager ever been fully truthful about what they do or what they take? Are we seeing the problem yet?
And under what "any other situation where qualified doctors can give birth control to minors" would this even come up? Rape/incest and medical emergency necessitating the use of birth control for benefits other than birth control. This issue with the schools issuing birth control is hardly comparable.
I don't give two shits that they're doing this, but they've opened themselves to a lot of risk that could result in the specific program (and possibly related ones if the shit hits the fan hard enough) closing in a bad way with the students being the ultimate losers.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Apparently the huge problem with allergic reactions to this medication doesn't prevent their classification as non prescription.
onenote
(42,715 posts)I know the FDA and HHS went back and forth on this, but I thought it had ended up with Plan B remaining prescription only for those under 17.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)and the age limit was imposed by fundaloons.
onenote
(42,715 posts)I was just trying to make sure I recalled correctly that there were still limitations on OTC availability. To the extent this thread is about Plan B pills being made available to minor students as young as 14, the statement that the pills are available OTC without the notation that at present there is an age limitation is a bit misleading.
Personally, I support the decision to make the pills available (with the parental opt out). I also disagreed with the decision to keep the age limit on nonprescription purchases. However, while that decision may have been made as a sop to fundaloons, I'm not sure I would describe Secretary Sibelius, who made the decision, or her boss, President Obama,who stood by her decision, with that term.
knitter4democracy
(14,350 posts)They legally can and probably do request the files to make sure it's okay to prescribe anything. It'd be their asses on the line if they wrote a scrip for something the minor cannot take.
Others can't access those files, you're right, but medical providers can and do all the time.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)and New York state law requires pharmacies to fill these prescriptions.
You can be a first time patient of a doctor, fill out a medical history form, and get a prescription. What do you think happens at Planned Parenthood offices every year? Millions of young people go to Planned Parenthood for the first time and leave with prescriptions for birth control. It's nothing new; I had teenage friends who did this decades ago.
http://www.nyclu.org/news/rrp-defends-minors-right-confidential-access-birth-control
The RRP's letter to a Duane Reade official described the incident; explained that the pharmacist's actions actually run counter to New York State law, which requires the filling of valid prescriptions, and to federal constitutional law, which enables teens to obtain contraception without parental consent; and demanded that Duane Reade immediately undertake action to prevent such unlawful acts against other patients.
Ten days later, the Duane Reade official reported that he spoke with the pharmacist involved in this incident and explained to the pharmacist that State law and Duane Reade policy require her to fill valid birth control prescriptions, including those for minors. He also stated to the RRP that it is his understanding that this pharmacist will from now on fill and dispense birth control prescriptions, even to minor patients. Finally, he agreed to issue a clarification of the law in some sort of publication to pharmacists, such as a monthly newsletter. The RRP continues to monitor the situation.
DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)at least the programs are covered legally, so the students should be safe.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Answer is no. I think you are saying that no health care provider should be able to prescribe anything without "full knowledge of what these students may have been previously prescribed that might interact poorly". Why?
Easy. Any other time they visit a health care provider except for the case they have had only 1 their entire lives and that is the one they visit. You do realize that there is an age in each state where a minor can get contraception, including hormonal, without parental notification, right?
Quantess
(27,630 posts)Teen pregnancy is not exactly a great achievement.
truthisfreedom
(23,148 posts)Bring it on all across the country.
Rowdyboy
(22,057 posts)Doesn't really concern anyone other than the families though. Except as an example of Republican/Independent values.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)Either they haven't been informed very well or its not as big of an issue as the right-wingers want you to believe.
NYC Liberal
(20,136 posts)He was a lifelong Democrat until he switched in 2001 when he ran for mayor because there were so many candidates in the Democratic primary and no real candidates on the Republican side.
I don't like him very much: he's an asshole and has done some nasty things (particularly with Occupy and the 2004 GOP convention). But he's also a liberal on most social issues, not one of those right-wing "family values" nuts.
In short, Bloomberg is an opportunist. He switched parties to get elected then left the GOP when the Republican label was falling out of fashion (particularly in New York) later in Shrub's presidency.
Rowdyboy
(22,057 posts)those like Bloomberg who provide a cover of respectability and a shitload of money to support the assholes of the Republican party.
He apparently wasn't much of a Democrat during his "lifelong" affiliation.
Daemonaquila
(1,712 posts)We lost Mayor Coleman to the GOP in Minnesota some years ago. Good riddance! He turned St. Paul from a run-down town into a wasteland. Hey GOP - I hope you enjoy having the loser!
NYC Liberal
(20,136 posts)His only real loyalty is to whatever or whoever is in his own political interests.
He's not as much an "independent" as "me first".
Selatius
(20,441 posts)Anybody can register as a Democrat.
He may be socially liberal, but on bread and butter economic issues that people survive upon as far as having a job and buying enough food to live, he was always willing to play ball with what Wall Street wanted, and the bankers and business magnates on Wall Street never gave two shits about the American working class.
That's why they saw fit to send millions of manufacturing jobs to China and gutted the middle class base that was built on top of that. They wanted the bigger profit margins that come with paying Chinese workers 60 cents an hour.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Who knew???
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)go for it.
self-realized sadge
(10 posts)These pills encourage sexual activity and do nothing to prevent STDs. Lovely.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)I think you took a wrong turn somewhere. FR is thataway>>>>>>>>>
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)No more and no less than aspirin contributes to an evening of heavy drinking resulting in hangovers.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Selatius
(20,441 posts)God help us if women are given a choice away from that kind of life.
No, they need to do it the religious fundamentalist way and be taught abstinence only sex education and have no contraception or condoms or any of that nasty crap.
They need to emulate Mississippi's model.
Yeah, it has some of the highest teen pregnancy rates and infant mortality rates and childhood poverty rates in the nation, but they're right with God! If you're not with God, then you will BURN IN HELL!
roddma
(2 posts)So thwarting the religous right is more important than looking after your minor children? WOMEN/ADULTS have the choice not 14-17 girls or boys. Yea abstinence hasn't worked which means they are not responsible with the methods already available. Why trust them with anything? Yes I am democrat too but it doesnt mean I condone kids running aorund having sex with whoever they please and disrespecting adults. It just gives relgious right wingers fuel for the fire against public schools. Besides, Fundametalists do not go to school anyway.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Let's see if I can follow your logic. Teens get pregnant because they don't use the "methods already available" which according to you is abstinence. If "just say no" doesn't work, then why should they have any other method available? And contraception makes them run around having sex randomly? And makes them "disrespect adults"?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Why don't you go read a book instead of spending your time like this?
Selatius
(20,441 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)But thank you ever so much for your "concern".
malthaussen
(17,205 posts)Good for NYC. The morning after pill is only the greatest invention since the Pill.
-- Mal
Pisces
(5,599 posts)after pill, they have already had sex without parental consent.