Emergency Contraception free essay sample

The idea of Emergency Contraception is not a new to society, however it is still igniting many debates just as it did when it was first introduced to the United States. Emergency contraception continues to be a highly emotional and controversial issue, both for advocates who believe EC will lower the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions, and for opponents who believe that using EC amounts to an abortion. The controversy fueling this debate centers around one of the ways that emergency contraception works. Emergency contraception can prevent or delay ovulation, affect the movement of the egg or sperm: making them less likely to meet, it can also interfere with the fertilization process and prevent implantation of a fertilized egg. In March of 2009, a United States judge ordered the FDA to allow 17 year olds the ability to acquire the emergency contraceptive without a prescription. We will write a custom essay sample on Emergency Contraception or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This overruled the 2006 ruling that anyone under the age of 18 was not permitted to receive Plan B without a prescription. Jessica Welbourn, who is an active intern at Naral Pro-Choice NY, said, The passage of the new law reducing the age from 18 to 17 will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and will reduce the number of unsafe abortions because minors who are afraid to ask for help from parents/doctors and dont have access to the pill will take termination into their own hands. This will prevent the situation from even getting to that stage and will avoid an abortion all together. (Anderson Orr,  2009). Though there is no solid evidence many suggest that by reducing the age to 17 they are exploiting young women and encouraging teens to have risky sex. The reality is that teens will continue to have sex; sex education is not the only way to prevent teen pregnancies, there must be contraceptive readily available to them without the fear that their family will find out. Many do not agree with the argument that this will help with unplanned pregnancies and abortions. The Center for Reproductive Rights says making Plan B more widely available could reduce them, but The New York Times reports that since 18-year-olds were allowed to get Plan B without a prescription in 2006, there has been no evidence of it having an effect on the countrys teen pregnancy or abortion rates. Some argue that a girl can get an abortion without parental notification in some states, so why not Plan B. While parents would like their children to wait as long as possible to begin having sex, the reality is that teens are having sex much younger than many parents think. Some teens, or preteens, begin having sex or engaging in sexual behavior in junior high. By the time they are seniors in high school, an estimated 65 percent of teens have had sex, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007. (Dawn,  2009). Unfortunately, a percentage of those teens will become pregnant. After more than a decade and a half of decline (a 27 percent drop from 1991 to 2000), teen birth rates rose again in 2006, which was the last year for which data are available. It is still unclear on what caused teen birth rates to rise again, with supporters of abstinence-only sex education programs and contraception-based programs each blaming the other side for the increase. However, a 2007 study in the Journal of American Public Health attributed the trend in decreasing pregnancy rates to improved contraception use among teens during that time. (Anderson Orr,  2009). Providing information about contraception and how to use contraceptives properly may also delay sex in adolescents. The study, submitted for publication in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that providing junior high school students with information on abstinence, as well as contraception and sex education, delayed initiation of oral, anal, and vaginal sex and reduced the frequency of sex for those who were sexually active. Giving teens more information about their options to prevent unintended pregnancy, including emergency contraception, is as important as improving access to it. (Galanos,  2009)