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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Helms Restricting Teen Access to Emergency Contraception Dangerous |
Current rating: 0 |
by National Women's Law Center
(No verified email address)
Phone: Lela Shepard or Margot Friedman, |
15 Jun 2001
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Helms Amendment Restricting Teen Access to Emergency Contraception
Dangerous & Misguided, Says NWLC |
WASHINGTON - June 14 - The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) today denounced Senator Helms' amendment hindering teen access to emergency contraception as a dangerous restriction that would result in more unintended teen pregnancies. The amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (S. 1) requires school-based clinics to obtain written parental consent before distributing emergency contraception to students.
"This restriction will harm the health and well-being of our teenagers," said Marcia D. Greenberger, NWLC co-president. "The amendment creates a dangerous barrier that will deter young people from seeking time-sensitive health services and valuable STD counseling."
Studies show that teens will delay or forgo getting help at all if they have to obtain parental consent for emergency contraception. Limiting access to this health service places teens at risk for unintended pregnancy and misses an opportunity to counsel them on the benefits of delaying sexual activity, the risks of unprotected intercourse, and the importance of being tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Emergency contraceptive pills are a large dose of ordinary birth control pills taken within 72 hours following unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. They reduce the risk of pregnancy as much as 89 percent. Contrary to the claims of anti-choice, anti-family planning advocates, emergency contraception does not work like mifepristone (RU 486) which disrupts or interrupts an established pregnancy. Emergency contraception is another way of administering the pill.
The Helms amendment would override decisions by local communities on how to provide health services to adolescents. Local advisory boards consisting of parents, students, and other community representatives usually decide what services school-based health centers provide. These 25 states and the District of Columbia explicitly allow teens confidential access to contraceptive services: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming.
The amendment also flouts the recommendations of major medical and public health organizations, like the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which oppose mandatory parental consent requirements for family planning services.
Numerous assaults on family planning by Congress and the Administration show just how much basic reproductive health services are at risk. In addition to the Senate's vote on the Helms amendment, the House has already passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which would recognize for the first time a zygote, blastocyst, embryo or fetus as a "legal person," and has voted to reinstate the global gag rule.
In just five short months, President Bush has reinstated the global gag rule, proposed eliminating contraceptives from federal employees' health insurance plans, proposed cutting the domestic family planning program (Title X) and announced plans to change an existing regulation to make it harder for minors to obtain family planning and reproductive health services.
"Access to family planning services is a critical concern for American women," said Greenberger. "Yet this Administration and Congress have shown an extraordinary eagerness to take extreme positions on this issue and put themselves outside of America's mainstream."
The National Women's Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working since 1972 to advance and protect women's legal rights. The Center focuses on major policy areas of importance to women and their families including economic security, education, employment and health, with special attention given to the concerns of low-income women. |
See also:
http://www.nwlc.org
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