Not a Good Plan

It is a common argument that if you are able to fight for your country, you should be able to drink in it. Well, America has once again complicated what very well could be a simple right and put an age on it. What I am referring to is availability of the Plan B contraceptive for girls under the age of seventeen. Even though girls are able to reproduce as early as elementary school, the law now provides that a prescription is required for girls under seventeen while those older can access the morning after pill over the counter. The FDA has just announced that they will not be revoking the current restrictions even though advising panels have been recommending the change since 2003.

As far as science has proven, there is no correlation between side effects or effectiveness and the age of the women who take the pill. So then, what is the underlying motive that is keeping it unavailable to younger girls?

The only answer that I can personally come up with is society’s unfortunate habit of telling women that they are not in control of their bodies, and if they try to be, they will be faced with consequences. Those who keep their conservative morals close continue to live with naïve beliefs that the less access girls have to contraceptives or sex education, the less likely they are to have sex. However, this fear tactic has proven to do quite the opposite as young girls are having sex without sex education or even any understanding of their own bodies.

FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg gave her reasoning for denying the request:

“It is common knowledge that there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age. If the application were approved, the product would be available, without prescription, for all girls of reproductive age. …”

To be blunt, this statement is far from a constructive argument. If we know anything about younger girls of reproductive age, it is that they tend to make less educated decisions than older adolescent girls. And if these uneducated decisions lead to pregnancy, they are even less fit to have a child than those a couple years older than themselves.  Therefore, if anything, Plan B should be even more accessible to these younger girls.

This idea of controlling women’s decisions about their bodies is nothing new. Jessica Valenti brings up these issues in her book (and now movie) The Purity Myth. Jessica sheds light on the dangers, irrationality and pure exploitation of “The Virginity Movement.” As virginity is being used to limit and possibly reverse the progress of women’s rights, Jessica asserts that, “it’s breathing new life into a very old idea.”

The illogical decision made yesterday by the FDA and the related issues concerning women’s rights in The Purity Myth cannot go unnoticed. It would be more than a shame to watch women’s rights take such leaps forward, just to be pushed back by patriarchal control.

By: Lauren Opatowski

(Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt under a Creative Commons license.)