Laws on Plan B

[MandyLaLa]

The thing about the four pills; it is easy for a teenager to fuck it up. To think that more might be better, or that four is way too many so I'll just take two! Plan B has explicit, easy to read instructions. I think they should have it free at the school nurse's office. It's cheaper than having a school daycare.

My Catholic high school would have a cow. Their school nurse is provided by the town and doesn't work for the dioces, she didn't go as far as handing out condoms. But she was the one person you could go to for anything sexual.

Not that kids in a catholic high school have sex. Certainly not the teacher who had a long term sexual relationship before it came out and all hell broke loose.

[Itsnotaclowncar]

wtae.com/r/30389209/detail.html

Shippensburg University is selling Plan B out of vending machines for $25. Great idea, provided they keep up with the expiration dates.

[Austin]

I spoke to my husband about this last night and the first question he asked was who is responsible to keep it full. Second question was about water balloons. :roll: :D

I am happy to keep it full, if necessary. So far it hasn't been, but I'm sure that day is coming. But if one of them started making water balloons, I'd charge them for their fun. I paid something like $14 for the box.

[reds]

[ADoyle90815]

I'm also one who would love to see all barriers to this product removed, as if it were freely available, there would be fewer accidental pregnancies, as well as fewer abortions. The idea of fewer abortions should appeal to those who are against the proceedure, but many of the rabid ones are anti-female as well.

[bananacat]

I have to object to your claim that people are having sex younger and younger. Do you have any data to back that up? Loretta Lynn got married when she was just 14.

Anyway, that doesn't really matter because Plan B should still be available OTC for all ages. But I can do without the finger-wagging and assumption that the next generation is just so freaking different than the previous generation.

[dawbs]

I am happy to keep it full, if necessary. So far it hasn't been, but I'm sure that day is coming. But if one of them started making water balloons, I'd charge them for their fun. I paid something like $14 for the box.

[Witsec7]

Its free to teens at my local public health!

[kemme]

I live in Ontario, and I'm unsure if we have a minimal age to buy plan b.

I went with my friend last spring to get it at the Walmart pharmacy. We were both 16. No questions were asked, except whether she wanted name brand or no name. I think it was $20+ for the no name and 40+ for the name brand.

There was no lecture (my friend would have been livid if there was), and the pharmacist didn't seem to care that we were buying it.

[Katiebug]

I'm generally in favor of Plan B being more readily available OTC. My only reservation is for potential misuse, because like normal birth control pills there are contraindications. However, just about any OTC drug has contraindications and potential for misuse, so if the FDA has deemed it appropriate to be sold without a prescription I'm fine with that. Being behind the counter is probably a reasonable compromise in the name of safety, but has the drawback of being subject to the whims of the pharmacist dispensing it; who's to say that they'll be decent and non-judgmental about it?

The one time I chose to use Plan B was when I was a 27 year old married woman; DH and I had a condom break. It's the only time it's ever happened and thanks to the free-flowing booze at the wedding we'd attended that evening, we didn't notice the problem until too late. My cycle is like clockwork and I knew I was close to ovulation, and since condoms were our only form of birth control I figured I'd get Plan B just in case. We knew it might not work and were OK with that.

I live in a pretty liberal state but I was not happy with the initial response I got when we went to Walmart. I asked the pharmacy tech quietly that I would like to purchase Plan B. She gave me the dirtiest look, then pointedly looked at my wedding ring and said that children are a blessing. I just asked her to get the pharmacist (I may or may not have said, "Get a real pharmacist here to talk to me." :x ). To the pharmacist's credit she asked me about possible drug interactions/contraindications, iimmediately got the pills, quietly explained proper dosing and side effects, and rang the order up. I told her that her pharmacy tech had been a jerk about it, and she was not pleased and promised that she would see to it that it didn't happen again. If I, as a married adult woman, was made uncomfortable by the tech's behavior I can only imagine that a frightened teenager could have easily been shamed into just going away.

I did not wind up pregnant so it's likely that I was just past ovulation when we had the little birth control foul-up. Plan B works by delaying ovulation; the science has shown it's only really effective when taken prior to ovulation, and there's no statistically significant reduction in the chance of pregnancy if Plan B is taken after ovulation has already happened. It isn't abortifacient despite what the fundies and Catholics like to claim. I know at least two women who've had Plan B babies!

[AKay]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I got yelled at by a convenience store clerk for buying a pregnancy test once...so awkward.

Plan B should be as available and non-controversial as throat lozenges.

Ditto. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. That person was an idiot.

I got the stink eye from a pharmacist when I bought a pregnancy test, and I was married, well into legal adulthood, and trying to get pregnant! Some people are just waaaaay too involved in other people's personal lives.

[SpeakNow]

Ditto. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. That person was an idiot.

I got the stink eye from a pharmacist when I bought a pregnancy test, and I was married, well into legal adulthood, and trying to get pregnant! Some people are just waaaaay too involved in other people's personal lives.

I remember when I was 13 I had to go on birth control because I would have periods that would last more than 2 weeks which was making me anemic. (sorry if that was TMI). Anyway, I remember going to the dentist one time, and the receptionist asked if there were any changes to my medical history and if I was taking any medications. I told her I was on Yasmin, and she gave me a funny look and said, "You're on birth control? How old are you?" I didn't really feel like explaining my reason, but I was so embarrassed because I was certain that everyone in the waiting room heard. People really need to learn not to judge. (BTW, I told the dentist and he was horrified and said he would talk to the receptionist.)

[muffynbear]

I live in a pretty liberal state but I was not happy with the initial response I got when we went to Walmart. I asked the pharmacy tech quietly that I would like to purchase Plan B. She gave me the dirtiest look, then pointedly looked at my wedding ring and said that children are a blessing. I just asked her to get the pharmacist (I may or may not have said, "Get a real pharmacist here to talk to me." ). To the pharmacist's credit she asked me about possible drug interactions/contraindications, iimmediately got the pills, quietly explained proper dosing and side effects, and rang the order up. I told her that her pharmacy tech had been a jerk about it, and she was not pleased and promised that she would see to it that it didn't happen again. If I, as a married adult woman, was made uncomfortable by the tech's behavior I can only imagine that a frightened teenager could have easily been shamed into just going away.

I told her I was on Yasmin, and she gave me a funny look and said, "You're on birth control? How old are you?" I didn't really feel like explaining my reason, but I was so embarrassed because I was certain that everyone in the waiting room heard.

OMG, :angry-cussingblack: heads would fucking roll if someone tried to make me feel ashamed for taking BC. I'm sorry, but if some pharmacy tech or receptionist tried this with me, it would NOT go over well to say the least.

Katiebug, I hope you wrote to the corporate office at Walmart and I hope that lady was fired. That was completely unacceptable and unprofessional. :naughty:

[MandyLaLa]

Each grade at my catholic high school went on a yearly retreat, junior year we had this guy Sean Forrest ( mwts.org/mwts/Sean_Forrest.html )he told this amazing story about a young kid who killed himself and he let us have time to apologize to our classmates. It was amazing. It was also the first time I was exposed to "soul winning".

Senior year he came back for our retreat and it was almost like he was pissed that we weren't still all kumbyyah and still loving each other. No we were back in our cliques just like normal. He went fundie ape shit. The Stuff he said, my school will never invite him again, they say he was too much fire and brimstone which isn't how Catholicism should be and my school felt like he was to much pre Vatican II (I think that's the conference name)

He was an asshole. In he few hour he was with us, he talked a lot about premarital sex and he singled out a friend of mine who questions him on his statement of "imagine you took your girlfriends virginity, and she died in a car accident late that night and had to go to heaven no longer a virgin" Well my friend he said this to his girlfriend (a friend of mine and many at my my school) had passed away earlier that year, she had a brain aneurism while driving. ran off the road and both her and her passenger died.

He told the asshole some choice words and stormed out. It was ugly,

There's even more to this story but I think this post is long enough, lol.

[Katiebug]

Katiebug, I hope you wrote to the corporate office at Walmart and I hope that lady was fired. That was completely unacceptable and unprofessional. :naughty:

No, unfortunately I didn't. We were actually away from home due to the wedding and stopped at Walmart on the way home to pick it up because we don't shop there. I was embarrassed and didn't want to go to the CVS where we usually fill prescriptions and where employees might recognize us. :oops: We've never been back but that's more because we choose not to shop at Walmart than anything else.

Really, I had NO reason to be embarrassed but I was. There's absolutely nothing wrong with any woman wanting to avoid a potential unplanned pregnancy by using a legal, non-prescription drug. I know it's not rational to be embarrassed, but it's how I felt at the time. We ended up trying for a baby a year and a half later, we have a toddler now, and I would not choose to take Plan B again at this point in my life - it made me nauseous as hell and an "oops" pregnancy would genuinely be OK for us. However, I think it needs to be made available without judgment to anyone who needs and wants it!

I think that it's good to have Plan B available online. It would be much better to buy it when you're not freaked out or panicked about a BC failure. Then it's in the cabinet ready if/when needed - no need to go to the pharmacy when you're feeling emotionally vulnerable or embarrassed.

I'm sure that by the time our child(ren) are teens there will be different options for emergency contraception, but if we had a teenager now I would absolutely have a package of Plan B in the house and make it known that if it's needed it is available with no judgment. I must admit that if we didn't know our hypothetical teen was sexually active and we saw the box missing from the closet, we'd probably ask some questions and if necessary help arrange for/encourage a more reliable birth control method being used consistently. However, I will never judge our children for protecting themselves.

[Cerysbell]

The Daily Fail was banging on about under 16s beng prescribed birth control without parental consent today. I can't see how anyone can think pregnancy is a better option for people in their early teens. I get that they're advocating celibacy, but in a vy don't do as I do, do as I say type way.

I took the MAP at about 16 and mine was a packet of ordinary BCPs with instructions from my GP. He told me there was no such thing as the MAP and I was too timid to say that I knew there was, as I had been with my friend when she picked it up a few months before. anyway, that packet of pills went on to help several friends out, so it worked out okay in the end.

[Swamptribe]

Didn't see if this was already posted. What a great idea.

http://www.wtae.com/r/30389209/detail.html

[Austin]

Didn't see if this was already posted. What a great idea.

http://www.wtae.com/r/30389209/detail.html

The comments gave me hope!