Many readers of The Controversy used to listen to me on the radio and have wondered why I don't end my column with the sign-off that I used on all my national and local radio shows for the better part of my professional broadcasting career. I debated with myself - when I started writing The Controversy in November 2012 - how I could include my familiar phrase in all my blog essays. After all, it's been my trademark for a long, long time. But now - after so many of you have inquired about my missing slogan - which focuses on "talk"...not writing...I have re-visited the issue...and have decided I can make it work. And since a blog - especially one that invites readers to comment - is really a conversation...then the word "talk"...fits in. So therefore...from now on...I will sign-off each of my commentaries with the three words that have been a part of me for my nearly 40-year communications career.
Now on to today's topic.
I'm going to talk with you today about the rightfully performed flip-flop by the Obama Administration and the United States Justice Department...when on June 10th, 2013...the federal government made a major reversal with its position on the so-called..."morning-after pill."
"Uncle Sam" is dropping its appeal of an April 2013 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman that will allow teenage girls - no matter how young - to have access to emergency contraception - without a physician's prescription. That's right - there is no age restriction - and a prescription by a medical doctor is no longer required to obtain the morning-after pill.Judge Korman did exactly what he should have done. Although teen pregnancies and births have plummeted over the past two decades - down 42 percent from 1990 - there were still nearly 330,000 babies born to teenage women between 15 and 19 years of age in 2011 - the last year that totals are available, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. And when you factor in those teens who are 13 and 14 years old - the amount is even higher.
Therefore, kudos and a full round of standing ovation applause - not only to Judge Korman - but to President Obama and to his entire administration for understanding and agreeing with His Honor and the U.S. District Court.Throwing out the age restriction is the best part of this decision. If medical science is accurate - which reportedly it is - the morning-after pill prevents contraception for 72 hours after sexual intercourse. And the fewer teen pregnancies we have in our country...the better it's going to be all around.
If teenagers - that's girls who would become pregnant - and boys who would have impregnated them - don't have to suffer the physical, mental and emotional troubles and heartache of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies... how can anybody object to a way to prevent such anguish?
Not too many years ago...teenage boys - (girls in those days would rarely enter a drug store for this purpose) - but teenage boys were not able to purchase a box of condoms unless the young lad embarrassingly asked the local pharmacist (or a middle-aged mother of your high school classmate, who was the clerk at the store) to sell you the "rubbers." It was either that...or finding a scummy, out of the way gas station bathroom with a coin operated vending machine that sold a single condom for 50 or 75 cents. Guys, you know what I'm talking about.
Of course, the word "condom" became more readily used and more openly a part of our vocabulary, as a result of the unfortunate and tragic epidemic of AIDS during the 1980s and 1990s. Retailers finally got smart and began stocking the shelves of aisles so that a person didn't have to ask anyone for the product. AIDS was instrumental in giving people - boys and girls, men and women - easy access to condoms...in the hope it would help reduce the spread of the HIV virus and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
As condoms are available to anyone today - by merely tossing a box in your shopping cart, along with your milk, bread, toilet paper and laundry detergent...so should the morning-after pill. Although the pill is not a method of preventing STDs...it will help put a stop to unwanted pregnancies. And especially for 14, 15, 16-year old girls or younger, who'd be afraid to tell their parents - and may not know what to do if they did "go too far" with their boyfriend - the morning-after pill...and the abandonment and absence of age restrictions...are going to be a lifesaver for numerous teenage girls.
Despite what some of you may think...the morning-after pill is not going to cause more teenagers to "have sex." But it will tackle...if not altogether stop...unwanted teen pregnancies. Oh I know what's on many of your minds...and what some other critics are saying...that this method of contraception will give those teenage girls - who were scared to begin with - the courage to go ahead and go "all the way" with a boy...because now...they have a surefire and foolproof approach to avoid getting pregnant. That's a bunch of bunk and a whole lot of hooey. Those teenage girls - for the most part - who weren't going to have sex before the morning-after pill - are still not going to "do it" - now that the pill is being made available to them, as if it were bubblegum. And those girls who are "gettin' it on" with their boyfriends...or just "hooking up" with any guy they want...will now be lucky enough to have a way to block an unwanted embryo from becoming a baby.
As for those of you who also object to - any girl - of any age - being able to purchase the morning-after pill...because it will allow girls to bypass their parents and/or their doctors if the youngster thinks she could have become pregnant...that is a poor excuse to not have the pill available without a prescription. Mothers...and fathers...still need to talk with their kids - girls, as well as boys - about sex, pregnancy, diseases and the responsibilities involved when taking that step in any relationship...whether it's long-term or a one-night stand. And if parents are not doing their jobs - as parents - then things are going to happen anyway. Wouldn't it be nice for kids to have a back-up plan - just in case?
Sex - or I should say - "having sex"...has been around since Adam and Eve. And girls...and boys alike...are going to - "have sex"..."hook up"..."hang out"..."chill"...or whatever euphemism you want to call it - no matter how many parents talk with their children about the subject. Mothers and fathers can have conversation after conversation with their kids - even lecture them 'til they're blue in the face - about being protected when having sex - or about not having sex at all...but those teenagers who want to - are going to "fool around" anyway...no matter what anybody tells them.
With the morning-after pill...at least those girls who "do it"...without protecting themselves with another form of contraception...will now have a way...so an unwanted baby...will not have to be brought in to the world.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy will make an effort to publish a new commentary every Sunday and Wednesday. Unscheduled essays may appear, from time to time, on other days as well.
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