New York City High Schools Dispensing 'Plan B' to 14 Year Old Girls is Social Lunacy

By Deacon Keith Fournier
9/30/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

'New York City is dispensing the morning-after pill to girls as young as 14 at more than 50 public high schools, sometimes even before they have had sex'

Does it make sense to give 14 yr old girls a chemical weapon to ingest? This "emergency contraceptive", may result in the eviction of an embryonic human person. Even if it does not, does it send the correct signal about the dignity of every human life and about that girls own dignity? Does its distribution respect the role of parents and serve the common good? To dispense "Plan B" to 14 year old girls in High School is social lunacy.

Facebook Delicous MySpace

Twitter Stumble Digg

More Destinations

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The Associated Press reported that "New York City is dispensing the morning-after pill to girls as young as 14 at more than 50 public high schools, sometimes even before they have had sex." This is part of a program which bears the acronym CATCH, "Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health".

The program bypasses the primacy of parents in their indispensable role in the lives of their children way of its use of an "opt out" requirement rather than an "opt in". The presumption of the Nanny State social engineers in New York City is that these girls as young as 14 have some kind of right to get these drugs, free of charge.

This is the same City which will not allow these girls to buy sugary soda out of a feigned concern for their health? We are losing our collective mind! We are now handing out so called "Plan B" to 14 year old girls, at taxpayer expense, in High School! In fact, such practices will soon become normative if the "Affordable care Act" or "Obamacare" is fully implemented.

In 2003 the "Food and Drug Administration" (FDA) of the United States Government held a public hearing on "Plan B" and recommended making it available over the counter without a prescription. Heralded by its proponents as a "morning after" pill, it was purported to be different from Mifepristone (RU-486), which induces a miscarriage at any time after conception.

Medical evidence disputes the claim that this self ingested chemical concoction is always 'contraceptive' in preventing fertilization. Even the FDA's own Question and Answers admitted this with these words: "Plan B works like other birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Plan B acts primarily by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary (ovulation). It may prevent the union of sperm and egg (fertilization). If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation)."

The Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life's Statement of October 31, 2000 explained: "The morning-after pill is a hormone-based preparation which, within and no later than 72 hours after a presumably fertile act of sexual intercourse, has a predominantly "anti-implantation" function, i.e., it prevents a possible fertilized ovum (which is a human embryo), by now in the blastocyst stage of its development (fifth to sixth day after fertilization), from being implanted in the uterine wall by a process of altering the wall itself. The final result will thus be the expulsion and loss of this embryo."

In 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Holy See issued an "Instruction on the Respect for Human Life in its origin and on the Dignity of Procreation" Among the many questions it answered with absolute moral clarity was: "What Respect is due to the human embryo, taking into account his nature and identity?" The answer given by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church: "The human being must be respected - as a person - from the very first instant of his (her) existence."

In a 2008 Instruction on the Dignity of the Human Person, considering "Certain Bioethical Questions" we find a thorough treatment of many Bio-Ethical issues. We also find a simple insight which cuts right through the fog surrounding this matter, "It must be noted, however, that anyone who seeks to prevent the implantation of an embryo which may possibly have been conceived and who therefore either requests or prescribes such a pharmaceutical, generally intends abortion."

Whether you listen to the Church or to the State, you get to the same place - "Plan B" can result in the taking of human embryonic life when it makes implantation of a newly fertilized oocyte impossible. This new human life, seeking shelter and nourishment in the first home of the whole human race finds that there is no room. "Plan B" renders this new human life homeless by subverting "Plan A" which is to welcome her/him into the mother's womb, the first home of every human person.

"Plan B" can thus become a direct chemical attack on a unique human life seeking refuge, a chemical landlord refusing shelter to the newest member of the human family. This legitimate concern does not even take into account the other danger, the unknown effects this massive dose of a hormone may have on the woman (girl) who ingests it. "Plan B" contains a concentrated massive dose of progestin. It can become a "Pre-Emptive" chemical strike, acting before that new life becomes some ...

1 | 2 Next Page

Rate This Article

Was this helpful to you? Very Helpful Somewhat Helpful Not Helpful at All

Would you be interested in more articles like this? Yes, I am Interested No, I am not Interested

Rate Article

1 - 10 of 10 Comments

Beth
7 months ago
I looked up the age-of-consent laws in NY state. The legal age of consent for sexual activity is 17. There are some exceptions for partners who are close in age (less than four years apart - exceptions like these are often called "Romeo and Juliet" clauses) - but without being able to determine the age of a girl's sexual partner, how is it that these school employees are not going to be potentially guilty of accessory to the crime of statutory rape by administering these drugs to girls under age 17? If a 14-year-old girl has sex with a 19-year-old man, a crime has been committed according to the laws of NY state. But, as we know, the ones pushing contraceptives without parental consent - both in and out of school - don't give a hoot about statutory rape. Apparently, the only consequences worth avoiding are pregnancy and STDs. The emotional and spiritual consequences of early sexual involvement are of no concern, because these folks are in denial that they exist at all.
Beth
7 months ago
Not to mention the fact that many 14-year-old girls are having sex with men, not underage boys. Sure, honey, go ahead and just take this little pill and everything will be fine. Liars.
Tom
7 months ago
Their view is that they will not discuss morals, and cannot "prove" that kids having sex is "wrong" any other way. Therefore, they seek to prevent another generation of unwanted children with condoms and pills. They new "right versus wrong" is "protected or unprotected" sex. But it isn't working. By age 18, many girls who have been used and discarded by drive-by boyfriends will choose to have a baby, so they can have at least one person in their lives whose love is genuine. The 40% illegitimate birth rate isn't made from people who didn't know about pills and abortions. That stopped in the 80's when "go for it" sex education became the norm. If you want this fixed, you have to get the children themselves to understand that all that casual sex has other damage to them besides pregnancy and STD's. Older readers here may remember when drunk driving wasn't taken seriously. It took MADD to get enough attention, that now most normal people care enough not to do it. We need something like that.
vance
7 months ago
My question is, "Where is the Church leadership on this issue?" Yes, we heard from the Holy Father The Pope ((( BUT ))) we hear absolutely ((( NOTHING ))) from Cardinal Dolan or any of the other Bishops and priests. I hear push back from Conservative Talk Show hosts but again absolute silence from the Pulpit or airwaves from our Church Leadership. Could they by chance approve of "Plan B"? If not, please let me know. I won't hold my breath waiting for a response.
DLL
7 months ago
When 14year old girls start having strokes because of birth control drugs,than it will be an outrage.
John
7 months ago
What's happening to our schools . We send the chuildren to be educated and not to take the place of parents. Our public schools should be concerned with education and teach our children how to be Men and Women. How to behave in public, how to dress;, have you ever seen some of the teens dressed for school, you think it'e halloween!!! Teachers do your duty and let the parents be parents!!
JeanCatherine
7 months ago
I am not a parent and probably shouldnt answer here but... I was a young girl once and parents are going to have to reach their children on this subject.
Jennifer
7 months ago
I think the bigger issue here is that we are sending a message to all our children that it is now ok to have sex at even a younger age than before. The goverment, along with our school systems and especially parents should be working together to better equip society that abstininence is the only way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. I will say that when I was 14yo that I did get pregnant. I felt pressured by my boyfriend at the time to have sex and all I wanted was someone to love me. After I finally told my mother, she made an appointment for me to get an abortion. I would have been 4 months pregnant at the time. God thankfully helped me in my decision to finally stand up to my mother and refused the abortion. Against all odds, I stayed in school and started the process of finding adoptive partents for my son. I was only a child and was not able to raise on myself. To this day, it was the hardest thing that I have ever done, but was the greatest gift that God Himself could have given me.

I think instead of having sex education classes in our schools, they need to help children, and their parents, realize the benefits of abstinence. Our tax payer dollars would be better at work.
Kathy
7 months ago
Whatever happened to teaching our young girls not to have sex. We as a country put a bandaid on everything. The real issue, is that young children are having unprotected sex...without consequenses. I am 50 yrs old. At age 14 or 15, I was only interested in school and playing volleyball...and church......boys were the farthest thing from my mind. None of my friends thought this way either. I guess, I really do not understand what has happened to our youth, and those in charge, that would condone such behavior, and then administer a drug that would possibly kill a baby. If we do not watch out, Satan will be in total control of this country. Get out and VOTE!!!
Kasoy
7 months ago
The US government, whenever a Democrat president is sitting in Washington, pushes contraception and abortion programs in less developed countries in Latin American and Asian countries through USAID in cooperation with UN's WHO and multinational contraceptive manufacturers. Abortion and contraception agenda then become the legislative priority in those nations. During the Bush and Reagan administrations, such agenda went to the backburner until a Democrat got elected as president.

Prev1Next

Comments submitted must be civil, remain on-topic and not violate any laws including copyright. We reserve the right to delete any comments which are abusive, inappropriate or not constructive to the discussion.

Though we invite robust discussion, we reserve the right to not publish any comment which denigrates the human person, undermines marriage and the family, or advocates for positions which openly oppose the teaching of the Catholic Church.

This is a supervised forum and the Editors of Catholic Online retain the right to direct it.

We also reserve the right to block any commenter for repeated violations. Your email address is required to post, but it will not be published on the site.

We ask that you NOT post your comment more than once. Catholic Online is growing and our ability to review all comments sometimes results in a delay in their publication.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

Send me important information from Catholic Online and it's partners. See Sample

Post Comment