There's Got To Be A Morning After...

la,la,la,la ...We're moving closer to the shore
I know we'll be there by tomorrow
And we'll escape the darkness
We won't be searchin' any more

Sing with me! Aww come on....you know the words. It's that sappy song from the 1972 classic The Poseidon Adventure. Wheee!

Or not.

It seems the right wing powers that be are freaking out over a different morning after. They don't want young women to have the option of purchasing Plan B, the morning after pill, over the counter. Among the arguments (and there are quite a few) are the theory that it will allow girls to be more promiscuous. Now, if it were just girls that were having sex we wouldn't have any pregnancies at all would we? Oops, but that's another whole blog, isn't it? Ah-hem.

My favorite theory is that allowing easier access to The Morning After Pill will allow teenagers to create sex cults where they will have all kinds of crazy monkey sex and then just pop the pill the next day. I am not making this up. This was the concern voiced by a conservative Christian group on Nightline Monday night. They equate making the Plan B pill readily available to the sexual revolution of the 60s and the freedom that was allowed women due to The Pill (birth control). Heaven forefend women have some control over their reproductive futures.

What an odd argument. Don't they realize, that times have changed considerably? When the young people of the 60s were discovering a new found freedom of reproductive choice, about the worst thing you could catch during sex was the clap. I may not be a teenager anymore, but I'm not that far removed and I know that I grew up in an age where having sex CAN KILL YOU. As far as I know things have not changed in that regard. HIV and AIDS is still out there and the message is clear. "Have unprotected sex and risk your life." Besides, we are not talking about handing out Plan B like candy to underage kids. You would need an I.D. to get it and I believe you would have to be over 18. (I'll have to check my sources on that one to be sure.) It might be 21. The point is, it would not be easily accessible to your average 15 year old.

I find it terrifying that our current president has been able to appoint supreme court justices that will be gleefully chipping away at Roe v. Wade for the foreseeable future. We have companies making a mint on little blue pills for men. Yet we can't seem to get it together and help a woman prevent an unwanted pregnancy. Plan B is most effective when taken less than 72 hours after intercourse. If you have ever tried to get a prescription filled that requires a doctor visit, you know that 72 hours ain't long. The sooner you can take this pill the better. Not to mention that there are many pharmacists that won't distribute the Plan B pill even with a prescription because it contradicts their moral ideals. Now there's a terrifying thought. Plan B does not kill a fetus. It produces a massive amount of hormones that prevents an egg from being fertilized or stops the fertilization process. The pharmacist issue freaks me out because it's hard enough to get a doctor to listen to your choices and act on them. The last thing a patient needs is yet another wall of resistance barring her way to completing a difficult and possibly traumatic decision.

If getting preggers were still an issue for me, I would be asking for a prescription and getting it filled as soon as I could. I think it's good advice. Shit happens. Condoms break. We forget to take our birth control pill. Not to mention possible really bad things like date rape and worse. Better to have it an not need it than to need it and not be able to get it in time, then find yourself at a planned parenthood clinic talking to a counselor about your "options."

For more information, click here to go to thePlan B website.