Morning After Pills in High Schools

            Some are again questioning whether New York City is going too far. Nurses in high schools there are now handing out the morning after pill to students without parental consent. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, officials say the parent were made aware of the program and were offered a way to opt out. Very few parents decided not to take part in the program. Health officials say the program was designed to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. The pill works as emergency contraception up to 72 hours after unprotected sex or contraception failure.

Despite the program’s intent it has created unwanted controversy. One city lawmaker has called on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to immediately put an end to the program because he views medicating children without parental consent as unconscionable, according to the Tribune article. The director of an anti-abortion group in the area says the program should actually force parents to opt in instead of declining to participate. That way, many more parents would pay attention to what is going on because they would have to sign a permission slip in order to take part.

It is true that New York City is one area with a teen pregnancy problem and I commend health officials for trying new methods to reach out to teens and ameliorate this problem, however I feel this type of direct involvement in the lives of students is unwise. It removes the parent from the equation, going over their heads to manage teen reproduction. Officials have shifted the problem of teen pregnancy from the home to the schools. Now, it will be seen as a school’s fault if a teen becomes pregnant and schools already have enough to worry about without getting involved in this fight.  I think some teens will see this as an easy way to get around having to talk to their parents about sex. Instead of being safe, they’ll just go to the school nurse after the fact. It seems health officials do not want children to eat high calorie foods or drink large sugary sodas, but they are okay with teens getting emergency contraception at school without their parents knowing.