Plan Be
posted by Silvana
As many of you have no doubt heard, the FDA has lowered the age requirement to get Plan B over the counter from 18 to 17. This is great news, but it doesn't go far enough. I see no reason why there should be an age requirement on it. It's nothing but an attempt to control teenage women, borne of paternalistic fears at the thought that they might--gasp!--have sex.
Here's the thing: If you're old enough to be having sex, you're old enough to be using Plan B. Clinical trials have shown that it's actually extremely safe, and there are absolutely no health reasons for restricting it to women 17 and older, or 18 and older. There simply aren't. There are only political reasons and moral reasons.
And those moral reasons aren't coherent. Because if a 15-year-old woman is freely consenting to sex, and there is some kind of mishap that leads her to need plan B, she should be able to get it. And if a 15-year-old isn't freely consenting to sex, but a man is raping her, then she needs plan B even more. Why does the government think that possibly being saddled with a pregnancy will make men stop raping women? It hasn't worked before. Men still find ways to rape women, even when the threat of pregnancy is there. Men still found ways to rape women before there was birth control. Which is why this post by Robert Stacey McCain is shocking in how revolting it is:
Though you won't be hearing any FDA officials or politicians spouting off the same vile shit that McCain is, their hesitancy about making Plan B available to all young women is borne of the same disregard for young women as volitional human beings. I understand that there's a legal presumption that women under 17 are not able to consent to sex. I understand that that's a bright-line rule and, in general, I think statutory rape laws are good ones. But making Plan B available to women younger than 17 is not at all at odds with principle that, in general, a woman under 17 is not able to legally consent to sex with a man over 17. Because they do it anyway. Some of them do it consensually, and some of them have it done to them non-consensually, i.e. men rape them. And both of these groups need access to birth control, which is medicine. Don't forget that.
I needed Plan B once. It was over two years ago. I'd just started dating my boyfriend, and we were very, very excited about the newly-blossoming relationship. In fact, it was probably one of the craziest times in my life in terms of emotional upheaval. One of the first few times we had sex, the condom stayed inside me after he pulled out. With all the semen in it, of course. I didn't freak out, but I was definitely scared. First, there was the no easy task of getting the thing out, which was quite an ordeal. And it hurt. Then there was the "what the fuck do we do now?" It was my first condom mishap ever, and his too. Even after we'd decided to get Plan B, there was still the "what if I get pregnant anyway?" We talked about it.
The problem: it was about 1 a.m. We were both leaving in the early morning, on separate flights, for a trip to New York. I really didn't want to be running around New York City while I was on a quasi-business trip trying to find a pharmacy to give me Plan B while the 72 hours were ticking. So we looked online and found a 24-hour pharmacy a couple miles away. It was late and it was January-cold, so we hopped in a cab together.
I didn't want him to come in with me. I don't know why. The social context of the drug made me feel like walking in with a dude in the middle of the night and asking for contraception...I just couldn't do it. I went in alone. Of course, I had to find the pharmacist, and ask for it, and he asked me for ID. Thank god I had some on me. That night, I learned my boyfriend's ATM pin just days after we started dating because he insisted on paying for the thing, but I refused to let him come in with me.
I'm a little ashamed to say that the whole ordeal was scarier than I expected. I felt like I wasn't in control, and I was worried about having to get the stuff from the pharmacist. Now, remember that at this time I'm a 24-year-old woman, about to get a professional degree, in a relationship that, if not yet stable, is certainly not emotionally abusive or problematic. And I considered it a very small ordeal.
Now imagine a young woman, 15, or 16. Who doesn't yet have even as much bearing as I did about sex, and relationships, and relating to men and dealing with contraception. And you want to tell me that these young women shouldn't be able to do what I did? They shouldn't be able to decide that, well, they'd rather not get pregnant and they'd rather play it safe? Instead they should have to get a prescription for an over-the-counter drug? And somehow manage to get an appointment with a doctor, and figure out how to pay for the doctor's appointment (not to mention pay for the drug itself), and negotiate talking to their parents about it, all within the space of 72 hours? Especially considering that the effectiveness goes down the longer you wait?
That's what you want? Well, fuck you.
Women are human beings. Even 15-year-old ones.
Here's the thing: If you're old enough to be having sex, you're old enough to be using Plan B. Clinical trials have shown that it's actually extremely safe, and there are absolutely no health reasons for restricting it to women 17 and older, or 18 and older. There simply aren't. There are only political reasons and moral reasons.
And those moral reasons aren't coherent. Because if a 15-year-old woman is freely consenting to sex, and there is some kind of mishap that leads her to need plan B, she should be able to get it. And if a 15-year-old isn't freely consenting to sex, but a man is raping her, then she needs plan B even more. Why does the government think that possibly being saddled with a pregnancy will make men stop raping women? It hasn't worked before. Men still find ways to rape women, even when the threat of pregnancy is there. Men still found ways to rape women before there was birth control. Which is why this post by Robert Stacey McCain is shocking in how revolting it is:
Plan B -- the drug that allows guys to breathe a sigh of relief the morning after using some chick for selfish pleasure -- will now be available to 17-year-olds without a prescription.It is so evident in this passage that McCain doesn't believe that women are human beings. It never occurs to him that a 17-year-old might need plan B because she decided she wanted to have sex. No, to him, young women are only receptacles for men's desire and men's semen. If she's not old enough to buy cigarettes, she's apparently not old enough to have volitional thought. And of course he mentions "child support payments and DNA tests"--because that's all these men worry about: the possibility that they might get saddled with a monthly financial obligation because they produced another human being. Don't you know? Women get pregnant just to get THA MONEY! Dolla bills y'all!
Who cares that she's not even old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes legally? Get her drunk on wine coolers, get what you want, then the next morning, take her to CVS to get Plan B and make sure there's no chance the slut will show up in a few months talking child support payments and DNA tests.
So guys, if you screw a 17-year-old and "forget" to use a condom, remember: Nothing says "thanks a lot, you cheap whore" like the gift of Plan B! (via Pandagon
Though you won't be hearing any FDA officials or politicians spouting off the same vile shit that McCain is, their hesitancy about making Plan B available to all young women is borne of the same disregard for young women as volitional human beings. I understand that there's a legal presumption that women under 17 are not able to consent to sex. I understand that that's a bright-line rule and, in general, I think statutory rape laws are good ones. But making Plan B available to women younger than 17 is not at all at odds with principle that, in general, a woman under 17 is not able to legally consent to sex with a man over 17. Because they do it anyway. Some of them do it consensually, and some of them have it done to them non-consensually, i.e. men rape them. And both of these groups need access to birth control, which is medicine. Don't forget that.
I needed Plan B once. It was over two years ago. I'd just started dating my boyfriend, and we were very, very excited about the newly-blossoming relationship. In fact, it was probably one of the craziest times in my life in terms of emotional upheaval. One of the first few times we had sex, the condom stayed inside me after he pulled out. With all the semen in it, of course. I didn't freak out, but I was definitely scared. First, there was the no easy task of getting the thing out, which was quite an ordeal. And it hurt. Then there was the "what the fuck do we do now?" It was my first condom mishap ever, and his too. Even after we'd decided to get Plan B, there was still the "what if I get pregnant anyway?" We talked about it.
The problem: it was about 1 a.m. We were both leaving in the early morning, on separate flights, for a trip to New York. I really didn't want to be running around New York City while I was on a quasi-business trip trying to find a pharmacy to give me Plan B while the 72 hours were ticking. So we looked online and found a 24-hour pharmacy a couple miles away. It was late and it was January-cold, so we hopped in a cab together.
I didn't want him to come in with me. I don't know why. The social context of the drug made me feel like walking in with a dude in the middle of the night and asking for contraception...I just couldn't do it. I went in alone. Of course, I had to find the pharmacist, and ask for it, and he asked me for ID. Thank god I had some on me. That night, I learned my boyfriend's ATM pin just days after we started dating because he insisted on paying for the thing, but I refused to let him come in with me.
I'm a little ashamed to say that the whole ordeal was scarier than I expected. I felt like I wasn't in control, and I was worried about having to get the stuff from the pharmacist. Now, remember that at this time I'm a 24-year-old woman, about to get a professional degree, in a relationship that, if not yet stable, is certainly not emotionally abusive or problematic. And I considered it a very small ordeal.
Now imagine a young woman, 15, or 16. Who doesn't yet have even as much bearing as I did about sex, and relationships, and relating to men and dealing with contraception. And you want to tell me that these young women shouldn't be able to do what I did? They shouldn't be able to decide that, well, they'd rather not get pregnant and they'd rather play it safe? Instead they should have to get a prescription for an over-the-counter drug? And somehow manage to get an appointment with a doctor, and figure out how to pay for the doctor's appointment (not to mention pay for the drug itself), and negotiate talking to their parents about it, all within the space of 72 hours? Especially considering that the effectiveness goes down the longer you wait?
That's what you want? Well, fuck you.
Women are human beings. Even 15-year-old ones.
Labels: m. leblanc
Posted at 6:10 AM
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