# Why is the Obama administration fighting so hard to legally restrict access to contraception? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 1, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270 "2013-05-01T23:42:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/61 "2013-05-02T04:17:26Z")
No. I’m starting to doubt that this daughter of yours really exists. You seem to be so out of touch with how teenagers think that I’m not sure you ever were one yourself, even–perhaps you are an AI programmed by Mormons or something. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/62 "2013-05-02T04:38:48Z")
The reason the administration is fighting so hard to prevent access to contraception for kids is the same reason they are fighting so hard to prevent access to dental care for kids. As for the political angle, the FDA decision is sure to be popular with women voters, so long as those women voters don’t have daughters. Last I checked, moms were almost universally opposed to letting their daughters gain access to contraception without their knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/63 "2013-05-02T04:49:09Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Yes. Access to birth control will certainly make decisions to have sex easier. Do you have a cite for that? [I have one](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/389509.stm) that says the pill and promiscuity are not linked. It also mentions that the pill is more successful the sooner it is taken. Involving parents in the process would certainly prolong the time between unprotected sex and taking the medication. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/64 "2013-05-02T04:49:17Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > No. I’m starting to doubt that this daughter of yours really exists. You seem to be so out of touch with how teenagers think that I’m not sure you ever were one yourself, even–perhaps you are an AI programmed by Mormons or something. Again, thank you for being open about your bigotry. I’ll assume you’d have no problem with me accusing people of being “programmed by Jews”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/65 "2013-05-02T05:37:53Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > I don’t think wanting 15 year olds to have kids is “reasonable.” We’re talking about making EMERGENCY contraception available to kids who have already HAD sex. Saying that in that scenario, them getting pregnant is a good thing is not a reasonable position to take. There is a correct, black-and-white answer here, and it’s not the one the God-Emperor Obama has arrived at. No one wants them to have kids. What we want is for them to have to TELL THEIR FREAKING PARENTS instead of the government specifically creating a way for them to completely hide it from them. It’s not as if the parents won’t be able to go out and buy the freaking drug for them. Despite the oddness of SDMB on this issue, sex is not just some fun thing that people do together. It has physical, emotional, and even spiritual significance. It has specifically evolved to create a type of pair bond between the two. A pair bond that a child is almost certainly not ready for. It’s one thing to believe that kids can’t be stopped from having sex. It’s another to promote tactics that will make it easier to not get caught. This is one of those issues where I feel like SDMBers must live in some Twilight Zone dimension. Yeah, I know some radical leftists who think like this, but the SDMB presents it as if it’s the mainstream view. You guys are out of touch with most of America on this issue. It shouldn’t be only our libertarian and conservative posters offering a counterargument. And I can’t help that you’ve never met any rational teenagers. I know plenty of people who decided not to have sex as teens due to the consequences. EDIT: I see I missed some other liberals making counter arguments. Sorry. I must have skipped some posts. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/66 "2013-05-02T05:38:19Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > Too bad everyone except little Suzie gets to vote on whether she got raped last night Crap! I forgot to vote in that referendum! ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/67 "2013-05-02T13:37:46Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No one wants them to have kids. What we want is for them to have to TELL THEIR FREAKING PARENTS instead of the government specifically creating a way for them to completely hide it from them. It’s not as if the parents won’t be able to go out and buy the freaking drug for them. That’s exactly what it is. Teens tend to get embarrassed about the fact that they are sexually active. Their parents might be part of the half of America with the horseshit belief spread by various people (maybe including you) that contraception is somehow equivalent to abortion. And you know what? People who are sexually active at age 15, 14, or younger probably have shitty parents to begin with–that’s practically definitional. People like this having kids is a tragedy for them, it’s a tragedy for the kids, and it’s a tragedy for you too because these are where criminals and the chronically unemployable come from. You can die on the hill of “no no no, I will not stand for anyone anywhere having sex that I do not approve of without being punished for it” or you can avoid paying extra taxes for all the prisons and welfare rolls later by stopping this stupid Christian crusade. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/68 "2013-05-02T13:49:00Z")
And of course, the bigger question here isn’t just the usual idiotic “burn the witch for having a vagina” argument against contraception, it’s where all the people who would be lining up to agree with me if this was a Bush administration decision are given the cognitive dissonance explosion of Obama doing it. Most of them are grasping at ridiculous reasons to defend the Messiah, unsurprisingly. The rest are keeping their mouths shut. Can’t rock the boat or actually have any kind of beliefs or principles about what the right thing to do is–the only ideology they have is “Obama said it, I believe it, that settles it.” ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/69 "2013-05-02T14:11:20Z")
> [@straight\_man](#): > > Crap! I forgot to vote in that referendum! I voted “no.” As in against raping little Suzie. I hope that others voted the same way and that little Suzie is fine. Of course, it’s all but clear that her father and uncles voted in favor. It’s sad. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/70 "2013-05-02T14:22:03Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Yes. Access to birth control will certainly make decisions to have sex easier. And access to seat belts makes the decision to drive unsafely easier as well. Of course, the benefits of injury prevention and pregnancy prevention are, IMHO, more than enough to justify the increased likelihood of of bad decision making. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/71 "2013-05-02T14:26:06Z")
> [@Cyros](#): > > And access to seat belts makes the decision to drive unsafely easier as well. Of course, the benefits of injury prevention and pregnancy prevention are, IMHO, more than enough to justify the increased likelihood of of bad decision making. I agree. But that decision should be made by a parent and not a 15 year old. I’m not against birth control. I am against the government making it possible for young girls to have sex and help them keep it secret from their parents. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/72 "2013-05-02T14:37:07Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I agree. But that decision should be made by a parent and not a 15 year old. I’m not against birth control. I am against the government making it possible for young girls to have sex and help them keep it secret from their parents. The government is not making it possible for young girls to have sex. Young girls can have all the sex they want and keep it from their parents (until the ‘accident’ happens anyway). By allowing young girls access to birth control without parental consent we are merely helping to mitigate dire consequences of bad decision making. I’d be all for parental consent if the parents were the ones that became legally responsible for the baby until it turns 18. If we leave the legal choice in the parent’s hands then the legal responsibilities should lie there as well. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/73 "2013-05-02T15:03:30Z")
So when will 15 year olds be allowed to get fillings without their parents’ permission? ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/74 "2013-05-02T15:12:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So when will 15 year olds be allowed to get fillings without their parents’ permission? When they are legally responsible for their own teeth? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/75 "2013-05-02T15:15:40Z")
So they are legally responsible for only one set of parts? Weird. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/76 "2013-05-02T15:39:00Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > It wasn’t enough for the foreign policy, the secrecy, and the domestic surveillance to be George W Bush’s third and fourth terms, we had to go there on women’s health too? > > [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/health/us-will-appeal-order-on-morning-after-pill.html?\_r=0](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/health/us-will-appeal-order-on-morning-after-pill.html?_r=0) Yeah, that Obama…trying to restrict minor girls from getting OTC access to prescription drugs. Freaking right winger! 😛 This has got to be one of the most ridiculous threads I’ve seen in a while. You have the OP going nuts and slinging shit everywhere, you have Der Trihs being, well, Der Trihs and claiming Obama is a right wing social conservative(!! :eek:)…and all over the Obama administration continuing the policy (that, afaik, most Americans on either side of the political spectrum who aren’t loons) of preventing girls under 15 from getting OTC morning after pills. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/77 "2013-05-02T15:44:37Z")
It’s not a “prescription drug.” It’s been OTC for most people in Europe and great swaths of the U.S. for decades. Not one side effect, bad interaction, or negative consequence from it. Millions upon millions of unwanted pregnancies prevented. Thank Plan B for you not getting murdered or having to pay 65% income tax in the future to support all of those unwanted kids. Wanting fifteen-year-olds to get pregnant, to punish them for being sexually active or any other reason, is insanity. That a great many Americans including our infallible Jesusdent are insane does not change this. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/78 "2013-05-02T15:48:37Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > So they are legally responsible for only one set of parts? Weird. They are not legally responsible for the baby that the contraception prevents. If a parent refuses to take their child to the dentist they are legally responsible for the results of that decision not the child. If a parent refuses to provide contraception to their child they are not legally responsible for the results of that decision but the child is (to my knowledge. If I’m wrong about this I’d be willing to have another look at my opinion). My argument is that the person who is legally held responsible for the consequences should be able to obtain access to existing products that could be used to mitigate those consequences without a third person’s approval (subject to existing restrictions related to needing a prescription, etc). ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/79 "2013-05-02T15:50:46Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > IOr better yet, I would like her Mom to know so she can put her on the pill and lie to me so I don’t become homicidal. 🙂 My neighbor has a daughter, I a step daughter at the time. We live in a rural area, and briefly discussed digging holes. I suggested that we could help each other dig graves, and he said, “Oh no, you make them dig them.” That guy has class. 🙂 But I digress. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270/80 "2013-05-02T15:53:38Z")
[QUOTE=Condescending Robot] It’s not a “prescription drug.” It’s been OTC for most people in Europe and great swaths of the U.S. for decades. Not one side effect, bad interaction, or negative consequence from it. Millions upon millions of unwanted pregnancies prevented. Thank Plan B for you not getting murdered or having to pay 65% income tax in the future to support all of those unwanted kids. [/QUOTE] Where has it been OTC in large swaths of the US for decades? > [@](#): > > Wanting fifteen-year-olds to get pregnant, to punish them for being sexually active or any other reason, is insanity. That a great many Americans including our infallible Jesusdent are insane does not change this. Oh horseshit. Such a strawman. I’m not saying I want under 15 year old girls to get knocked up, or to punish them. :rolleyes: I’m saying that under 15 is a freaking minor child, and that the parents DO have some say in what their children are doing and using. Seems pretty fucking reasonable to me…and I’m guessing most PARENTS, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum are going to agree with him on this. Which, IMHO, is the REAL reason he’s doing this…because most of the voters (again, just IMO) in this country, Dem or Pub are going to agree with him on this issue. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-obama-administration-fighting-so-hard-to-legally-restrict-access-to-contraception/657270.md?page=5)