A ridiculous decision caving in to the anti-contraception lobby. A pill that has been proven safe in millions of uses over the last 20 years all over the world, with no side effects, that will do nothing but REDUCE abortions and REDUCE unwanted children.
This should be everyone’s dream, but of course neither party wants it. It’s literally a magic pill that could end abortion in this country, but the “pro-life” people wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if they couldn’t stand outside of doctors’ offices yelling at confused teenagers, so of course they fight any attempt at contraception or sex education. The Democrats are no better and couldn’t care less about fighting Republicans on this issue.
And now we see a Democratic administration coming down against its own scientific and regulatory advisors, overturning their recommendation and refusing to make this pill available OTC to 16-year-olds.
The only attempt at a justification I heard was that some study showed that 16-year-olds can’t understand the labeling. You know what? I DON’T WANT PEOPLE WHO CAN’T UNDERSTAND LABELS RAISING KIDS. If they can’t understand the labels that’s the best goddamn argument for giving them this pill I’ve yet heard.
And of course, all the self-proclaimed “left wingers” are too busy practicing their drumming at Protestor Fantasy Camp to come back to reality and focus any sort of effort on accomplishing something that actually will greatly reduce poverty in this country and actually is achievable. The administration just might cave to liberal pressure on this issue (it already caved to conservative pressure, so why not). But nobody at the outdoor Radiohead dance parties that pass for “protest” in this country is interested in these issues or in doing anything to effect real solutions. You stay huddled with your organic sheep cheese and keep recoiling in revulsion at the touch of the homeless, Occupy Wall Street. Keep buying more masks from V from Vendetta and tweeting from your iPad about how oppressed you are. Obviously the adults will have to take care of this one.
Yeah, I was outraged when I heard about this on the radio, on the way home from work today. The logic of it utterly escapes me. The people who should be having the least children - teenagers - can’t get the stuff, but it’s OK for “adults” to have? It’s an instance of idiotic ideologues ignoring human biology in favor of socially-conditioned ideas. Teenage girls under the age of 18 should be able to avoid pregnancy by the easiest possible method. It’s funny, the opponents of this contraception are probably also against providing health care for the huge masses of disadvantaged humans that will be spawned by incompetent teenagers.
I don’t think Occupy has any connection to this, but it does deserve to be protested against the same way people are protesting against the banks.
I’m on the mailing lists of a few left and liberal organizations, and i’ve received no fewer than three emails about this very issue just today, from organizations that have also been supportive of Occupy Wall Street. I’d also be willing to bet that, if you asked them, a pretty large proportion of people at the Occupy protests would agree that the HSS decision sucks, and that Plan B should, in fact, be available over the counter to teens. Further, i’m also willing to bet that over the next few days we will see a substantial outcry over this issue by various left and liberal groups, including people directly involved with the Occupy movement.
And that’s all they do is outcry. They cry over everything and accomplish nothing because they’ve poured all their political capital into a sleepover.
I’m willing to bet that, should this decision be overturned, it’s because of meaningful efforts from Planned Parenthood or other organizations with a track record of knowing how to accomplish real things instead of standing around under people’s windows at 3 AM making noise and then patting themselves on the back for being so progressive. How much you want to put up?
What an overwrought response to a futile gesture. Shit, if any young woman over seventeen can buy the stuff over the counter, and its known to be safe and effective, who wouldn’t buy a dose for her sister if asked? Hell, I know I would, and I don’t even have a sister. Plus, I’m a guy, so it would be awkward.
Or would it? How unlikely might it be for a young dude to stroll into the pharmacy and buy a few doses, either in haste to forstall consequences, or at leisure in hopeful speculation. Beats hell out of carrying a rubber in your wallet. Classier, too.
Look, you raving douche, you’re assuming that people involved in Occupy are not also involved with organizations like Planned Parenthood. It is possible, except perhaps for someone as stupid as you are, to be concerned about more than one issue at a time, and to get involved with more than one organization.
I’m sure you’re right that PP will be heavily involved with this, because it is precisely the sort of thing that the organization focuses on. But Planned Parenthood is, like many similar organizations, beholden to its members for political, moral, and financial support, and i’ll bet that there are plenty of PP members involved in or supportive of the Occupy movement.
I’m on PP’s email list, i’ve given them money in the past, and i support what they do. I think it’s an excellent organization, and i hope it really runs with this issue. But your argument about Occupy, such as it is, is one big non-sequitur.
So Obama’s cabinet makes a poor decision and you blame… Occupy Wall Street? Is there ANY connection between OWS and this decision? Any?
It’s like you’ve been fucking your couch for so long, when your girlfriend finally comes over for some sex you start fucking your couch again instead because that’s all you know.
Oh good grief… this is kind of silly. If a teenage girl wants a morning-after pill, which is over-the-counter but requires an age check, currently… what would stop her from recruiting an older kid to go buy it for her, if she has the cash to buy a $50 pill?
The people this law is discriminating against: Girls aged up to 17 that can’t recruit an older girl to buy it for them, can’t discuss the situation with their parent or guardian, but they DO happen to have $50 laying around. (This has got to be a pretty vanishingly small segment of sexually-active teens.) So they can’t buy a morning-after pill without jumping through a hoop first. So what? Big deal. They can still get it if they want it bad enough to ask an adult to get it for them.
Yeah, I’m sure there’s tons of 16 year old girls that can’t want to pop oral contraceptives until they experience nausea and spotting. That’s all I see teens talking about on the Facebook: how cool it is to have upset stomachs and breakthrough bleeding. Way cooler than getting high on dextromethorphan.
Not to mention they should also be able to time travel to a few months ago when the occupy movements began so that they would know they should be protesting this upcoming decision instead of the income inequality and corporate stranglehold on our politics.