Would You Give ‘Plan B’ To Your Daughter?

I would allow my daughter (this is hypothetical because i am not yet a mother) if it was necessary. I have been fortunate that i have not (yet) had need of plan B...but I'm not ethically opposed to plan B so i wouldnt be opposed to my daughter using it. Although if it were necessary ....boy would things change around my house. Especially Im going to be the kind of parent who has had the sex talk...like all the time....til the point it pisses my daughter off. I could be wrong but Plan B used to be available over the counter (in some states in you're over the age of 18) minors may still need the perscription. Perhaps doctors are giving it "just in case" because their may not be time to schedule an appointment, have the appointment and get the perscription from the time a teen actually informs her parent she needs Plan B. Lastly, i agree with Law. I am a woman, i believe its my womb...if I want it to remain vacant thats on me. In marriage hopfully family planning is a couple's decision and so the man and woman pool their resources to address all reproductive issues as they would pool their resources for all aspects of their lives. But if a woman is single or just dating....birth control, condoms...pregnancy preventive is not something woman should abidicate for the man to handle. On the other hand i will tell my (future hypothetical) sons that they are both stupid and selfish if they say birth control is the woman's problem. If you want to have sex and NOT pay child support....then invest in family planning. Not only will it make you a considerate guy, its less expensive.

If I knew that my daughter was sexually active, I would have the Plan B discussion with he however I would not purchase it just in case since it is emergency contraception. I would tell her that I want her to save herself however if she can't use a condom and take but control. I had to take Plan B after the heat of the moment passed and when I came down, realized that "SH$!, I didn't pick up the RING!!" Luckily I had the method from a previous scar th Aunt Flo canceled out. Thankfully I didn't experience any side effects. I even rushed to the gyn for a back-up confirmation that the method worked, and I'm a grown married woman. I can't imagine having my daughter experience the same thing.

I don't understand why they are suggesting to just give prescriptions for it just in case, but if it came down to the fact that my daughter ended up having sex and didn't use protection or it failed, I'd want her to take Plan B. I know I took it one time just because of paranoia - I don't remember if I suffered any bad side effects.

I definitely want to teach my kids to be safe and encourage waiting. I was not sexually active as a teen, not even really into boys...lucky for my parents because they sure as hell NEVER EVER said a single word to me about sex when I was growing up. Literally. Not one word about it. I know that can be due to how they were raised, but that's just inexcusable to me. I guess they were 100% sure I was not dealing with boys. They were right, but I will NOT be working with that assumption with my daughter. I know I won't be condoning that my kid has sex as a teen, but I'm realistic so she will definitely be educated. If it comes down to her needing Plan B, condoms, whatever - I want her to have it, because I cannot even think about having a pregnant teen or being a grandma before I even hit 40 lol.

And unfortunately I have to agree with Law's statement. As much as I hate that so many men want to be sperm donors and nothing else, there is nothing to keep them from running away. They have the luck of not having their bodies locked up to grow a child. So women can't rely on anybody else to protect them or their bodies.

My oldest niece (my younger brother's child) is about to be 15. My parents are raising her, and my mother does her damnedest to make sure that Jade knows sex ain't no joke. Jade's mom was 19 when she had her and has had a promiscuous lifestyle since way before Jade was born. My brother's not exactly a choir boy, so my parents and I know that there's the possibility that, despite my mother's willingness to discuss sex with her, she could still end up pregnant. Unfortunately, no matter how often parents talk to their kids, there's one thing they have no control over, outside influences i.e. the kids' friends, the media, and society in general.

Sex education has come a LONG way since the 1950s, when I was a teen - examples:

(1). The middle school course taught by an up-tight, prim instructoress (who was forced to teach the course as a punishment, by the school administration) - a quick review of the 'plumbing,' followed by a lovingly-detailed review of all the different STDs and their hideous symptoms - a showing of Reefer Madness - another showing of the Birth of A Child, with about a third of the film censored according to the Comstock Code, emphasizing the pain and the mess - that followed by a further description of explicitly-noted, disgusting filth like ejaculation and menstruation - concluding with a long talk about High Moral Character.

(2). The parental talk, ending within 20 seconds by Father's full-strength backhand slap, and followed by kicks to the face,stomach and genitals, with inarticulate shouting, and that followed by Mother, telling me never to say nasty things like that and that it never happened.

(3). An local ordinance/law, requiring that any purchaser below the age of 21 must obtain a signed permission note from the parent, complete with name, address and phone number, plus a physician signature - as a direct result, some very innovative uses of early plastic wrap, waxed paper or purchase of wholly-unreliable Mexican condoms, which ripped open at the first movement.

(4). As a further consequence, lots of misinformation passed around 'on the street corner,' complete with innovative uses for coke syrup and asperin.

And this was for the guys ... Gawd alone knows what vicious stuff was force-fed the girls.

These are certainly questions that every involved parent faces.  I would like to say EVERY parent, but then we do live in the real world...  In my opinion as both a parent and a teacher who lives every day with 1100 teenagers, preaching abstinence does not work as well as encouraging abstinence and preaching smart choices with that discussion being a DISCUSSION, not a sermon.  Discuss the reasoning for the smart choices.  My daughter is 20 and my son almost 16 and I have had these relevant discussions with both.  I feel very lucky so far that their choices have been positive.  In addition, I think you need to be open to all alternatives such as this pill.  I agree we dont want to get to that point of needing it, but better to be prepared if it becomes necessary.  It is just another tool on the list of choices.

I have two little boys, and already a major part of their upbringing is taking responsibility for their actions. If they make a mess, they have to own up to it and clean it up themselves.

Secondly, I'm trying to teach them day by day, that everything is connected... and when they are old enough, that not using a condom may end up more costly in a number of ways: STDs, unwanted pregnancies and so on...

I don't believe appealing to a child/teenager's moral side will work - well, maybe with the religious-minded - but it has been the approach til now, and in general, it isn't working. I think a part of a realistic approach has to recognize teens as sexual beings (whether they are ready for such contact or not), and encourage to look at the opportunity costs of early pregnancy. 

If I had a daughter, I would have that unfilled Plan B prescription around. In order to get it, she'd have to come to me, be an adult about it and 'fess up.

As a young adult 21 about to be 22 in two weeks yay!! I think more parents need to be open and willing to talk to their children about sex. The truth is if people didn't make it seem so awkward to talk about it with parents young people would be more willing to do it and even if it seems like they aren't listening keep talking anyway. I watched so many girls in high school get pregnant and all I could think is where are their parents? Maybe their parents did talk to them about it. Maybe these kids were too embarrassed to go buy condoms? Maybe they weren't ready to admit to their parents they were having sex and that they should be put on birth control? Maybe just maybe if most people didn't make it so awkward to talk to their parents about it they would had been on birth control and we wouldn't be worrying about Plan B. I think a lot of it is that they just weren't communicating enough with their parents.

I have two daughters, My ex and I made it our business to educate our girls about sex at a very young age. Providing contraceptive to teens so freely is taking the responsibility away from parents and in to the hands of tptb. 

Plan B is not the answer. Parents need to take responsibility for the lives they've bought into this world. Teens DO listen. Educate them on why they should wait to have sex, and the beauty that comes with waiting.

If plan B is needed, clearly protection was not used, opening the door for something much more life changing than a child.

We can't fix this with a pill.  

I really don't like the wording of the LA times article because it implies that these sort of precautions will be handed out like skittles.  The prescriptions will be based on the lifestyle and desires of the patient, not to mention the discretion of the physician.  Conversations will have to be had. Whether that conversation does or does not end in a prescription, I think it's great that realistic forethought is even being implemented.  It will allow women/girls (maybe force some) to maintain that much more accountability for what they do with their bodies, which is what I thought the whole national conversation was chattering about.

I'm 26, no children, maybe never children, but based on how my mother brought me up, I think this sort of precaution would definitely be on the table were I to have a daughter.  With my mother, sex was an open conversation, so I was never shy about it, which is great when it comes to having straight up conversations with a man about sex.  Throughout high school I always had condoms whether I wanted them or not (I did not), and my mother always let it be known that I had resources available to me no matter what I was doing. I was asked if I needed to be on birth control about twice a year (non-judgementally I might add.  She might as well have been asking me if I needed a ride after school).  I'm sure if this sort of thing was available when I was a teen, I would have had a prescription.

Unfortunately, the reason why my mother kept the conversation going and was so proactive about things was because she was the exact opposite with her first born, my oldest sister.  Where as I didn't have sex until I was a junior in college (and it was wrapped up, pill-ed up, std tested, monogamous, don't you play not one game with me, sex), my sister starting having sex at 15, had an abortion at 16 (that my mother did not know about until later), a second at 18 (that my mother paid for, and it damn near killed her), and then had my oldest nephew out of wedlock at 19. She and my mother didn't have conversations about sex (outside of "where do babies come from") and males until the issue was forced and my sister kept getting pregnant.  And that's something my mother regrets to this day.

From that, when it comes to sex, I fully believe in being proactive, and giving youth a voice in the conversation.

Well hopefully I will be the type of mother not to shy away from it. All my kids would know the ins and outs of birth control. 

I went to my local Planned Parenthood and got on the Depo Provera 3-month birth control shot and had a standing appointment when I was ready to lose my virginity and become sexually active.  Yes, I was 21 years old, so I was older, wiser, and more informed of my options as a woman to prevent pregnancy and guard against STDs.  My son and daughter both will be duly informed of the ins and outs of being sexually active individuals and the responsibility that comes with it.  I will nag them to the point that either they will be completely prepared or freaked out that they opt not to go through with it until they are 100% comfortable.  My daughter (especially) will be taken to the OB-GYN to get the Depo shot before, during, and after she becomes sexually active, or I suspect she is thinking about it.

I'm 22 and a only a couple of years ago I was a teenager. Here's my take: We always whine and complain about these young: girls having babies, but we are scared to tell them the TRUTH. We don't want to give them access to birth control and emergency contraceptives, but we get mad when they are having babies. Well, which one do you want? Plan B or a lifetime taking care of a kid you were not ready for? I would rather a girl have the Plan B pill and avoid having to decide to have an abortion, raise a kid, or place a baby for adoption ANY DAY! We can't have complete innocence and help girls learn to protect themselves unless we want to start escorting our young women everywhere they go until they marry. Young women need to be educated about sex and it cannot be a one time conversation. It needs to be honest and ongoing. Black women especially need to be educated on the issue of contraception and this includes young women in college. I've known one too many young Black women go off to college only to have a baby in the first or second year.

Daughter will be taking the pill once I think she has the slightest interest in boys. PERIOD! But if push came to shove, yes, plan B then a very, very serious heart to heart.

I'd be reluctant to give Plan B after reading this article and finding out it's a birth control pill on steroids, LOL. I'm prone to blood clotting via genetics and I was warned about taking birth control pills. Since it's genetic, my daughters may have the same condition so Plan B isn't a consideration. So I guess you can say that I wouldn't give it to my daughters not in principle but for health risks.

I actually agree with this notion but for college aged girls who are on their parents healthcare. I had a friend in college who had an incident with her boyfriend. She was so shy and scared that her parents would find out. So, I went to the emergency room and lied and told them that I had had unprotected sex and needed plan b pills. If she had had a perscription, the whole ordeal could have been avoided.

The truth is, ish happens. And, like Law said, the women need to prepare and guard themselves. Condoms break. People do things in the heat of the moment. And, I think having a perscription beforehand is a great idea. I have a daughter and I fully intend to prepare her for life as best I can. That will include me letting her know that its okay to make mistakes. And, doing my level best to ensure that those mistakes do not result in long-term life altering consequences that could have potentially been avoided.

First.   I want to thank-you for your honesty in telling your story. 

Second.   I agree With Law.  This should subject be discussed candidly.....calmly....... and women should control this part of their health and sexuality.

Third.  I would hope that the decision to use Plan B for teens is made as a joint decision between the young woman, her parents,or guardians and the doctor. 

Fourth. Just so that we know what we are talking about.  Below are the websites for the two Plan B contraceptives used in the US.  You can access the frequently asked question sections for each from these pages.

 http://www.planbonestep.com/

http://www.mynextchoice.com/ 

Fifth.  Any person with medical knowledge of  and experience using these drugs should take the opportunity to join in this discussion.

Sixth.  As always play nice.

I wouldn't get any of my daughters pre-written prescriptions, nor would I push birth control. I wouldn't even push gardasil on them (read this if you wonder why: http://gaia-health.com/gaia-blog/2012-10-18/gardasil-destroys-girls-ovaries-it-should-have-been-predicted/)

I would talk to my girls, keep the door open on conversation and let them know that if they were planning on becoming sexually active that I would give them all the information they needed to know and let them know they could other information/services they need. I would also insist that the boy they were considering becoming sexually active with should go to their doctors appointment with them: I figure the boy won't go to that initial appointment, he probably won't go to anything else and he thinks that birth control is a woman's problem. His willingness or unwillingness to go also says a lot about how much he cares about your health--and his own--and it would reveal his maturity level. If he isn't willing to endure a little embarrassment/uncomfortableness NOW, before the two of you have sex, how mature do you think he is going to be with you after you have sex?