NYS Right to Life Committee PR on Mandated Unlimited Morning-After Pill for Teens

From Barbara Meara, Chairman of New York State Right to Life, 41 State Street in Albany, NY:

For Immediate Release__________________________________________April 5, 2013

                                 Judge's Ruling Abandons Teenagers

April 5---Judge Edward Korman of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn has issued a decision that vacates the current rule that girls "16 and younger must obtain a prescription from a doctor before buying the morning after after pill."

New York State Right to Life does not often find itself in agreement with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, but in 2011 she overruled a recommendation by the FDA to make the pill available to girls of any age without a prescription. Secretary Sibelius' concern was for the youngest teens for whom she felt the pill's safety had not been adequately established. We wish she had gone further but at least this decision offered some common sense to protect young teens who may not be mature enough to follow the directions and deal with the side effects of this drug.

There are three important and distinct issues. First, there must be full informed consent about the drug, including the manufacturer's claim that the drug works as an abortifacient when the contraceptive mechanisms fail. Second, the potentially serious health risks of this drug must be explored and reported. Meanshile, women, young and old, should have the benefit of seeing a physician before ingesting life and health altering drugs into their bodies. How politically correct but unconscionably wrong to deny a teenager the benefit of her parents' counsel when her best interest is at odds with the demands of the pharmaceutical industry and the abortion expansion crowd.

Lastly, these young girls may be the victims of incest or other forms of sexual abuse that will not be discovered when her victimizer can just pick up a cocktail for her at his local drugstore.

New York State Right to Life is appalled by Judge Korman's lack of concern for these young women. The pill is already being passed out with abandon in NYC public schools where it has been reported that 12,000 young students have been given the pill without parental consent or notification.

We hope that this decision will be challenged immediately.

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Comments

[Eileen Peterson]

This is a devastating ruling for children. What happens when these young girls develop breast cancer in their twenties?
Will Judge Korman take responsibility? Another example of parental rights being stripped away as judicial tryanny runs amok!