Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and this is Samantha, and welcome
Speaker 1: to Stuff. I'm never told to your production of Iheartradios
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. We have another Saturday Classic episode today,
Speaker 1: and as we've mentioned and previous Classic episode, Um, we're
Speaker 1: talking about abortion a lot lately in this country and
Speaker 1: on this very show, so we're we're playing some of
Speaker 1: the episodes that past host have done around this topic,
Speaker 1: and for this one, this episode delves into Plan B, Yes,
Speaker 1: which has come under fire, is involved in some of
Speaker 1: these really restrictive abortion laws that we're seeing in right,
Speaker 1: and the access of Plan B has been less and
Speaker 1: less per state. Yeah. Um, I know Samantha B did
Speaker 1: that joke of her like walking out the day after
Speaker 1: Donald Trump was elected with all of the plans. Oh,
Speaker 1: and it's I think it's skyrocketed in Amazon. That's one
Speaker 1: of the first things that people looked up and stocked
Speaker 1: up on and you could get like multi packs. Wow. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really exciting. I'm both not surprised and just hadn't
Speaker 1: really thought about buying Plan BE on Amazon. But yeah,
Speaker 1: when I found that out, I think it was actually
Speaker 1: Caroline from a ladylike former host of Stuff Mom that
Speaker 1: I told you she was the one like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it up right now, and oh maybe I
Speaker 1: should do the same. Yeah, yeah, maybe I should do
Speaker 1: what a what a positive state of affairs? The conversation
Speaker 1: was when does it expires? Was the date? That was
Speaker 1: another conversation, Yes, and another conversation that comes up sometimes
Speaker 1: around this And what this episode is about, UM is
Speaker 1: the argument that Plan B access is bad for girls
Speaker 1: right right, So to to learn more about that argument,
Speaker 1: we present to you this classic episode and we hope
Speaker 1: that you enjoy it. Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told
Speaker 1: You from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline and Caroline.
Speaker 1: A couple of years ago on the podcast, we did
Speaker 1: an episode on the Morning After pill and what it
Speaker 1: is UH, and we're going to revisit the Morning After
Speaker 1: pill and specifically the branded Plan B emergency contraception because
Speaker 1: it has made some headlines of late and we want
Speaker 1: to talk about the legal debate surrounding access to Plan BE,
Speaker 1: specifically access for younger girls UM. And also what emergency
Speaker 1: contraception is Yeah, because prebviously UM Morning after pills, the
Speaker 1: more appropriate name being emergency contraception because you don't have
Speaker 1: to necessarily take them the morning after. The whole rigamarole
Speaker 1: was that they were only available to girls seventeen and
Speaker 1: up with an i D and a prescription. So the
Speaker 1: evolution becomes that the FDA basically says it's okay for everybody.
Speaker 1: They study the safety and efficacy, they say it's okay.
Speaker 1: The administration kind of freaks out. The Obama administration kind
Speaker 1: of freaks out. That's it's not okay for everybody. It's
Speaker 1: oh my god, we have so many things to worry about.
Speaker 1: We can't just be handing out drugs like candy. The
Speaker 1: f d A in response, kind of tucks their tail,
Speaker 1: and then we get a whole bunch of lawsuits. That's
Speaker 1: that's kind of glossing over how everything's evolved. Now. What
Speaker 1: we're dealing with is this push to get rid of
Speaker 1: age restrictions versus the push to maintain the older age
Speaker 1: limit with I D. And what's interesting about this fight
Speaker 1: that we'll get into is that both sides, For instance,
Speaker 1: groups like the Family Research Council and groups like Planned
Speaker 1: Parenthood are both saying that this is an argument of
Speaker 1: politics versus science and they're both both sides are accusing
Speaker 1: each other of putting politics before what is best for
Speaker 1: our children. Yeah, and that's a Family Research Council obviously
Speaker 1: representing more of the conservative side of things, whereas Planned
Speaker 1: Parenthood is arguing more on the the liberal side of stuff.
Speaker 1: Not just to to boil it down to black and white,
Speaker 1: but the drug in question that we're talking about is
Speaker 1: called leave on a gestural and we hear about it
Speaker 1: under the brand name Plan B. And just for a
Speaker 1: little bit of historical context, emergency contraception is nothing new
Speaker 1: to medicine. It's not like doctors recently figured out, oh,
Speaker 1: you know what, we can actually uh give women a
Speaker 1: drug that could halt the egg from being fertilized after
Speaker 1: they have unprotected sex or in the case of sexual assault.
Speaker 1: And this brief timeline is coming from the paper Emergency Contraception,
Speaker 1: An Underutilized Resource out of the University of Wisconsin's School
Speaker 1: of Medicine and Public Health, and it talks about how
Speaker 1: hormonal emergency contraception was first studied in the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: when researchers figured out that estrogenic ovarian extracts interfered with
Speaker 1: pregnancy in animals, and so it started out as a
Speaker 1: high dose estrogen only formula, and vets were the first
Speaker 1: ones to use it on dogs and horses who had
Speaker 1: made it when the owner didn't intend to not with
Speaker 1: each other. Right, I had to read that twice. I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not joking. It's like dogs and horror. Okay,
Speaker 1: So dogs and dogs and horses were the first, the
Speaker 1: first UH animals to receive this kind of emergency contraception.
Speaker 1: And let's not forget though, about how women took emergency
Speaker 1: contraception into their own hands even before the FDA had
Speaker 1: a drug approved if douching, as we talked about in
Speaker 1: one of our favorite stuff Mo've Never Told You episodes,
Speaker 1: Down with the Douche Apparently not only did it, we
Speaker 1: talked about in the podcast about how women would douche
Speaker 1: with lysol and a lysol competitor, Zone Night, and apparently
Speaker 1: also with Coca cola. It is abrasive. Yes, we are
Speaker 1: in no way endorsing any of that. Don't do that.
Speaker 1: We're just saying that it happened. Keep coke on ice,
Speaker 1: not in your vagina, and that's a quote we can wrap. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: So moving on through the sixties and seventies, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of research done on different combinations of drugs
Speaker 1: to prevent UH pregnancy, and in the mid sixties we
Speaker 1: have the first documented human clinical cases of postquotal estrogens,
Speaker 1: and this is when doctors in the Netherlands use that
Speaker 1: veterinarian proved method on a thirteen year old girl who
Speaker 1: had been raped in order to prevent pregnancy. But by
Speaker 1: the late nineteen sixties in the US, high dose estrogen
Speaker 1: regiments became the standard, and then going into the seventies,
Speaker 1: we have the development of regiments that are a combination
Speaker 1: of estrogen and progestine. In nineteen seventy four, some of
Speaker 1: our older listeners might be familiar with the use Pay method.
Speaker 1: This was named for Canadian Dr Albert use Pay, which
Speaker 1: was an estrogen progestine combination and it replaced for a
Speaker 1: while the high dose estrogen treatments because it had fewer
Speaker 1: side effects. And now Plan B is a progestin only
Speaker 1: formula and it has greater efficacy in terms of blocking
Speaker 1: that pregnancy as well as fewer side effects, and in
Speaker 1: the US Food and Drug Administration approved Plan B with
Speaker 1: a prescription and since two thousand nine, the FDA has
Speaker 1: approved it for over the counter sales for women seventeen
Speaker 1: years old and over, and in two thousand eleven, this
Speaker 1: is when the legalities start to get really dicey. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, Health and Human Services Director Kathleen
Speaker 1: Sibelius blocks Plan B slash one step from being available
Speaker 1: to all women of all ages over the counter, and
Speaker 1: has happened in response to an application from drug maker Tiva,
Speaker 1: who makes Plan b UM. When the FDA went back
Speaker 1: and looked at it and recommended that it be made
Speaker 1: available to all women, saying that it's very safe, and
Speaker 1: so Sibelia says, you know what, I'm going to overrule that,
Speaker 1: And in response, reproductive rights groups such as Planned Parenthood
Speaker 1: sued the Health and Human Services Department for that. And
Speaker 1: so in the middle of all of this we have
Speaker 1: Judge Edward Corman of the District Court of Eastern New York,
Speaker 1: who was the one who in April five, two thousand
Speaker 1: thirteen this year, overturned the US Health and Service Says
Speaker 1: ruling to put an age limit on obtaining Plan B.
Speaker 1: So it's just been it's it's almost like watching a
Speaker 1: ping pong match between the courts and the f d A,
Speaker 1: and then also you have Health and Human Services stepping in,
Speaker 1: and so people are kind of on the one hand
Speaker 1: flipping out saying, you know what, we need to put
Speaker 1: some kind of age restriction on it. But the interesting
Speaker 1: thing is Judge Edward Corman, who has been presiding over
Speaker 1: this whole plan B legality since two thousand five in
Speaker 1: terms of overseeing whether or not it should be made
Speaker 1: available to everyone, he is basically at the end of
Speaker 1: his rope with all of this. Uh, there is an
Speaker 1: NPR story about this, and it's sites from the legal
Speaker 1: brief that he wrote. The effort to convert these leave
Speaker 1: on adjustural based contraceptives from prescription to over the counter
Speaker 1: status has gone on for over twelve years, even though
Speaker 1: they would be among the safest drugs available to children
Speaker 1: and adults on any drug store shelf. And and and then
Speaker 1: he signed it with a giant snap. No really, I
Speaker 1: mean I read the entire brief, his recent brief, and
Speaker 1: it was not only fascinating and enlightening, uh kind of
Speaker 1: get a better understanding of what's going on politically and
Speaker 1: in the courts about this whole issue right now. But
Speaker 1: it was just the most entertaining thing I may have
Speaker 1: ever read outside of a David Sadari's book, because I mean,
Speaker 1: this is like the most intelligent snark in the world.
Speaker 1: Judge Corman basically calls Sibelius's decision to overrule the strike
Speaker 1: of the age limit as politically motivated, scientifically unjustified, and
Speaker 1: contrary to agency precedent. He goes on to say that, look,
Speaker 1: it's really only the f d A that has the
Speaker 1: necessary information and expertise to make these decisions about the
Speaker 1: safety and efficacy of drugs. A principle he says that
Speaker 1: Sibelius flagrantly violated, and so in response to the defendants,
Speaker 1: who are you know, Sibelius and the Commissioner of Food
Speaker 1: and Drugs seeking a stay of the the strike of
Speaker 1: the age rules to pursue an appeal, he says it's
Speaker 1: something out of an alternate reality and says that one
Speaker 1: of their arguments that if you let it go over
Speaker 1: the counter now and then reverse it later without a stay,
Speaker 1: it's largely an insult to the intelligence of women, because
Speaker 1: he's like, dudes, you're the ones who have made this
Speaker 1: process for obtaining Plan B so freaking confusing, and some
Speaker 1: abroad the fact that it's telling that Corman is having
Speaker 1: such an intense response against the Obama administration's wish for
Speaker 1: that fifteen year old age limit on it. Because Corman
Speaker 1: was appointed by President Reagan, so he was part of,
Speaker 1: you know, a more politically conservative administration's appointments, and so
Speaker 1: they're saying, well, you know, if he if he's freaking
Speaker 1: out over this, maybe also for me thinking about being
Speaker 1: on the same case since two thousand five, maybe he
Speaker 1: just needs a vacation. Perhaps he's just tired of but
Speaker 1: he frustration leads to some of the beautiful things that
Speaker 1: he wrote. I'm okay with it. I highly recommend you
Speaker 1: search out this brief and read it now. Of course,
Speaker 1: in April, when Judge Corman said, you know what, enough
Speaker 1: of all this, you need to make Plan B available
Speaker 1: over the counter to all women of all ages. Also
Speaker 1: side note, men, you can buy Plan B as well. Um.
Speaker 1: But of course when he said, you know, the age
Speaker 1: limit should be removed, Q freak out because not only
Speaker 1: do you have well you have that. And then the
Speaker 1: Obama administration coming back and saying, nope, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old cap for that, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: need an i D so Planned Parenthood said in response
Speaker 1: basically like thanks, but you know what, you need to
Speaker 1: lift all restrictions to this. And then on the more
Speaker 1: conservative side, you have Concerned Women for America saying, well,
Speaker 1: if Plan B is so safe, then why do we
Speaker 1: need prescriptions for birth control? Huh? Yeah, they they get
Speaker 1: a little snarky. Also, this is like a big theme
Speaker 1: among this this debate is some snark. The Concerned Women
Speaker 1: for America wrote that the same quote women's rights advocates
Speaker 1: who want every decision to be between quote a woman
Speaker 1: and her doctor, are now eliminating the doctor and putting
Speaker 1: politics ahead of our kids. To see, there's that debate
Speaker 1: of like everybody's accusing everybody else of being too political
Speaker 1: in this discussion, right, And then the more liberal National
Speaker 1: Women's Law Center said, Hey, you know, with this whole
Speaker 1: I D issue, women who don't have i d s
Speaker 1: are going to be denied access That could create problems.
Speaker 1: How many fifteen year olds do we know who already
Speaker 1: have I d s? And even if you you know,
Speaker 1: if if one of us, for instance Carolina, older women
Speaker 1: who are plenty above the age limit to get Planned B,
Speaker 1: if we go to the drug store and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, oh, you know what, actually we've forgot our
Speaker 1: I D. Then we can't get it. The whole timing
Speaker 1: issue with the access to emergency contraception is important. Even
Speaker 1: if it means oh, well you gotta leave and then
Speaker 1: you might have to come back the next day. Well,
Speaker 1: in the time that has passed, that low worse the
Speaker 1: efficacy rates of emergency contraception. So this timing issue is
Speaker 1: very important. Um and then we have people from the
Speaker 1: Family Research Council saying, well, you know what, what about
Speaker 1: what this hormone is gonna do to the pre pubescent
Speaker 1: female body, because really a lot of this ties into
Speaker 1: fear of whether or not access to emergency contraception over
Speaker 1: the counter without an I D two girls of all
Speaker 1: ages is somehow going to set off as domino effect
Speaker 1: in younger girls brains that oh, you know what, I
Speaker 1: can start having sex whenever, because if something happens, then
Speaker 1: I can just go to Walgreens the next day and
Speaker 1: take care of it. So the Family Research Council points
Speaker 1: out that plan be distances the girls who are at
Speaker 1: high risk of sexual abuse and s T I S
Speaker 1: from the medical supervision they need. And I think That's
Speaker 1: an important question of access because are these girls who
Speaker 1: the Family Research Council is so concerned about, are they
Speaker 1: even getting medical intervention? Do they even have access to it?
Speaker 1: Are they able to go to the doctor and ask
Speaker 1: questions and get a prescription for this stuff? Um? I mean,
Speaker 1: what group of people are we talking about? Not everybody?
Speaker 1: Not every Uh young girls parents are involved in her
Speaker 1: life and can drive her to a pharmacy, you know. Well,
Speaker 1: And when I was I was listening to Dan Savage
Speaker 1: talking about this not too long ago, and he brought
Speaker 1: up a pretty distressing but relevant point of let's say, Okay,
Speaker 1: a girl is raped by her father and then she
Speaker 1: has to turn around and ask him to drive her
Speaker 1: to the drug store to go get planned beat you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like, it's it's pretty telling to that.
Speaker 1: In November of two thousand twelve, the American Academy of
Speaker 1: Pediatrics recommended that advanced emergency contraception prescriptions be allowed because
Speaker 1: kids are more likely to use it when that's the case.
Speaker 1: Like basically, if if it's already there, if they have it,
Speaker 1: then if something happens, then they're more likely to use it,
Speaker 1: which is one reason why new York Times parenting blogger
Speaker 1: kJ del Antonia suggested that maybe you know what, as parents,
Speaker 1: maybe we need to go ahead and just stock up
Speaker 1: on Plan B at home, and she advised that it
Speaker 1: be kind of as hard as it would to maintain this,
Speaker 1: it being no questions asked. Policy like, just come come
Speaker 1: to me and come get it if you need it,
Speaker 1: and we'll deal with it. Then just tell her, you know,
Speaker 1: tell your daughter that you that you have it and
Speaker 1: why you hope she'll never need it. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: mean one thing to to point out with with these
Speaker 1: understandable concerns about opening up a gateway to young girls,
Speaker 1: girls who you know, it might not be a good
Speaker 1: idea for them to be sexually active at such young
Speaker 1: ages when we're thinking about girls under fifteen possibly needing
Speaker 1: emergency contraception. But the Goodmaker Institute also highlights that very
Speaker 1: few young girls are sexually active. Only point three percent
Speaker 1: of ten year olds, point six percent of eleven year olds,
Speaker 1: one point three percent of twelve year olds, and three
Speaker 1: point four percent of thirteen year olds are sexually active.
Speaker 1: But something happens between thirteen and fourteen, where that percentage
Speaker 1: jumps from three point four percent of thirteen year olds
Speaker 1: to eight point six percent of fourteen year olds, and
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight there were over ten send
Speaker 1: pregnancies among fourteen year old girls in the United States.
Speaker 1: But among all that, there is no evidence that that
Speaker 1: jump has anything to do with the availability of emergency
Speaker 1: contraception exactly. But at the same time, it says, you
Speaker 1: know what, putting this fifteen year old age restriction does
Speaker 1: leave out a population that could be in need. Now,
Speaker 1: before we get into some of the reasons why Plan
Speaker 1: B is really just part of a broader discussion that
Speaker 1: we need to be having if we really do want
Speaker 1: to address lowering unintended pregnancy rates and specifically team pregnancy
Speaker 1: in the United States, let's take a quick detour though,
Speaker 1: to talk about what exactly emergency contraception is. This is
Speaker 1: something that we covered in our two thousand ten episode
Speaker 1: What Is the Morning After Pill? But it's worth going
Speaker 1: over right now as well. Right So, Plan B, like
Speaker 1: we said, contained the justin hormone called leave an adjustrial,
Speaker 1: and you should take it as soon as possible, typically
Speaker 1: less than seventy two hours after unprotected sex. But it
Speaker 1: is worth noting that if you're already pregnant. It will
Speaker 1: not harm the embryo. You will experience some side effects, though,
Speaker 1: the most common of which are nausea and vomiting. You
Speaker 1: might also experience abdominal pain, breast tenderness, dizziness, fatigue, headaches,
Speaker 1: and irregular bleeding. Yes, emergency contraception is not, I repeat,
Speaker 1: not the same thing as a medicated abortion um and
Speaker 1: most women are satisfied with the results of Plan B.
Speaker 1: There's a nine study which found that of emergency contraceptive
Speaker 1: users would recommend it actually to friends and family. But
Speaker 1: it is not cheap though. That's another thing with this
Speaker 1: whole you know question about access. We're all freaking out, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, Uh, fifteen year olds or fourteen year
Speaker 1: olds might not even be able to afford it if
Speaker 1: they were even allowed to buy it, because it ranges
Speaker 1: is from fifty to sixty dollars. And one thing too,
Speaker 1: that Judge Corman is concerned about is the fact that
Speaker 1: this over the counter stuff is only affecting one brand
Speaker 1: and not a generic, and that is going to do
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to possibly lower the price of emergency contraceptives
Speaker 1: and may in fact have the market effect of increasing
Speaker 1: the price. Because TIVA that drug maker can say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're the only OTC brand, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to pay what we say, which is awful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But other methods include the Paraguard copper i U D,
Speaker 1: which must be inserted five days after unprotected sex and
Speaker 1: is one of the best emergency contraception methods UH. They're
Speaker 1: also combination birth control pills estro with estrogen and progestine,
Speaker 1: which you have to take less than five days after
Speaker 1: unprotected sex. And these methods typically prevent pregnancy by preventing
Speaker 1: or delaying ovulation, blocking fertilization, and preventing a fertilized egg
Speaker 1: from implanting in the uterus. Again, it's not terminating a
Speaker 1: pre existing pregnancy, right, And in terms of the success rate,
Speaker 1: it depends on that time factor that we talked about. Generally,
Speaker 1: one to two out of women who use emergency contraception
Speaker 1: will still get pregnant. Um It may also delay their
Speaker 1: period for a week. But then if your period doesn't
Speaker 1: come around for three to four weeks, you have a
Speaker 1: dominant pain, you have a spotting, doctors say, you know,
Speaker 1: you need to go ahead and take a pregnancy test,
Speaker 1: but those success rates will diminish. The longer that you
Speaker 1: wait to take emergency contraception, get the paraguard I U D,
Speaker 1: use the combination birth control pills, whatever your doctor, nurse
Speaker 1: practitioner recommends in that case. Okay, so we've told you
Speaker 1: a little bit about the fight that's going on over
Speaker 1: Plan B, and we've looked at other methods of emergency contraception,
Speaker 1: but we haven't talked about maybe the downside of Plan
Speaker 1: B and how it's not just a cure all for
Speaker 1: all that ails us um. It doesn't. It's not a
Speaker 1: panacea for lowering unintended pregnancy and team pregnancy rates because,
Speaker 1: as we talked about, there are a lot of barriers
Speaker 1: to access, not just the idea and prescription, but also
Speaker 1: the costs. And this is coming from New York Times
Speaker 1: writer Rony Karen Raven who wrote that a lot of
Speaker 1: studies suggest that many women don't even know a morning
Speaker 1: after pill exists, or if they do know it exists,
Speaker 1: they literally think it only works the morning after, right.
Speaker 1: And these studies also point out that the patterns of
Speaker 1: use generally don't really do much at all to diminish
Speaker 1: unintended pregnancy rates, because emergency contraceptive use is highest among
Speaker 1: women with the lowest risk of pregnancy, because usually the
Speaker 1: women who go and get the morning after pill and
Speaker 1: take it are the ones who are already practicing safe
Speaker 1: sex and maybe the condom broke or something happened, they
Speaker 1: forgot to take their birth control pill and had sex.
Speaker 1: And you know, there are women who were already mindful
Speaker 1: of preventing unintended pregnancy, and so they then go and
Speaker 1: get emergency contraception, so their actual risk of pregnancy is
Speaker 1: very low. The issue is about getting it into women's
Speaker 1: hands sooner, and also these women filling that education gap
Speaker 1: among girls and women who you know, think that it
Speaker 1: either only has that twenty four hour window or don't
Speaker 1: really know that it exists. Yeah, and a lot of
Speaker 1: the argument against h granting access to Plan B two
Speaker 1: younger girls, a lot of that fear has to do
Speaker 1: with kind of culturally ingrained fears about casual sex, team pregnancy,
Speaker 1: single motherhood, taking parents and doctors out of the decision
Speaker 1: to take this medicine. And all of that is summed
Speaker 1: up in one quote in The New York Times from
Speaker 1: Dr Mary Avenport, the recent president of the American Association
Speaker 1: of Pro Life Obstetrictions and kinnecologists who said fear of
Speaker 1: pregnancy is a deterrent to sexual activity. When you introduce
Speaker 1: something like this, it changes people's behaviors and they have
Speaker 1: more risky sex. Teams will be counting on this morning
Speaker 1: after pill to bail them out, and they'll have more
Speaker 1: casual encounters. And I'm sorry, that's just unlikely because of
Speaker 1: everything we just talked about, not only the lack of
Speaker 1: awareness that it even exists, but so many barriers to
Speaker 1: acts of well. And also the fact of the matter is,
Speaker 1: studies have looked into the connection between access to emergency
Speaker 1: contraception and quote unquote risky sexual behavior and the correlation
Speaker 1: does not stand. I mean, I feel like, like I
Speaker 1: get a little frustrated when people seem to assume that women,
Speaker 1: some women just think of abortion, medicated abortion, emergency contraception,
Speaker 1: all of these things that are not pleasant processes for
Speaker 1: our bodies as just pleasant parachutes that we can just use.
Speaker 1: You know, Hey, we wanna just have some risk of
Speaker 1: sexual behavior, but it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna have
Speaker 1: ab cramps and abnormal bleeding for a little while. But
Speaker 1: it's fine, like a small price to pay. I don't
Speaker 1: know that that many women are thinking like that, but
Speaker 1: my personal thoughts aside. The American College of Obstetricians and
Speaker 1: Gynecologists have said point blank that making emergency contraception more
Speaker 1: readily available does not promote risky sexual behavior or increase
Speaker 1: the rate of unintended pregnancy among adolescents. Ready access of
Speaker 1: emergency contraception among adolescents is not associated with lower hormonal
Speaker 1: contraceptive use, lower condom use, or more unprotected sex. It
Speaker 1: seems like, in fact, like we said with that study
Speaker 1: finding that it's the women who have the lowest risk
Speaker 1: of pregnancy who are actually the highest users of ec
Speaker 1: emergency contraception, that that would probably extend down to teen
Speaker 1: populations as well. It's more about providing comprehensive sex ed
Speaker 1: because really the fact of the matter is this is
Speaker 1: I mean, it's emergency conscious. It's called emergency contraception for
Speaker 1: a reason because the focus really should be on consistent
Speaker 1: use of reliable forms of contraception, right, and and you
Speaker 1: talked about, um, you know, the groups of women who
Speaker 1: are getting easy access to this are maybe not the
Speaker 1: ones who need it the most. Philip Levine and Melissa
Speaker 1: Kearney for an article in the Atlantic talked about how
Speaker 1: this issue is really bigger than just contraception. The teen
Speaker 1: pregnancy rate issue is so much bigger than just having
Speaker 1: access to contraception like emergency contraception. For instance. They wrote
Speaker 1: that policies like access to plan be family planning, abstinence only, education,
Speaker 1: and sex said, don't really address the fundamental economic and
Speaker 1: social issues that drive teen pregnancy um. They argue that
Speaker 1: we have to improve educational attainment for young girls, show
Speaker 1: them valid reasons to delay motherhood, and prove to them
Speaker 1: that they have a reason to invest in their future
Speaker 1: and not just say well, I'm never going to get
Speaker 1: out of this small town, I'm never going to have money,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to find a man worthy of marrying.
Speaker 1: Why not have a baby now? Right? And they're saying
Speaker 1: this because the fact of the matter is that girls
Speaker 1: from disadvantaged backgrounds, from lower socio economic groups, who live
Speaker 1: in places with a larger gap between the poor and
Speaker 1: middle class are much more likely to give birth as
Speaker 1: teens than girls who have similar backgrounds but face less inequality. Yes, so,
Speaker 1: income inequality leads to lower economic mobility, which results in
Speaker 1: girls who don't see a chance to better their lives
Speaker 1: so they are the ones who are more likely to
Speaker 1: have a child. So it's not just that they're like
Speaker 1: going out and having risky sex, you know, for whatever,
Speaker 1: They're not necessarily being so cavalier about it. But it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, what else? You know, what else is there? Right?
Speaker 1: And I mean with all of this, it's no one
Speaker 1: is arguing that, you know, kids should be having sex
Speaker 1: at younger ages, or that we should be a cavalier
Speaker 1: at all in our approach to sex or having risky
Speaker 1: sexual behavior. One thing that we have not mentioned about
Speaker 1: emergency contraception is that hello, it does not protect against
Speaker 1: STDs and s t I, s UM. So it's but
Speaker 1: it's just part of this broader contraceptive education that it's
Speaker 1: not just team girls who needed, it's all of us.
Speaker 1: And also gets at a massive fear and discomfort over
Speaker 1: teen sexuality, which as much as as adults, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of repression going on. You
Speaker 1: don't want to think about kids having sex. But it's like,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do do You either pretend that
Speaker 1: it's not there and just hope to put the fear
Speaker 1: of you might get pregnant and end up in a
Speaker 1: terrible situation and hope to god they just never have sex,
Speaker 1: which is unrealistic because hormones exist, or you educate them
Speaker 1: and you grant access and you hopefully are you know,
Speaker 1: a wise and brave parent. I say that on an
Speaker 1: up end because it is such a huge challenge. But
Speaker 1: the answer isn't fear. And I feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of the combat against this kind of stuff of access
Speaker 1: to Plan B is very fear motivated because kids are
Speaker 1: gonna do what kids are gonna do, you know. And again,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, to tie all of this up, uh,
Speaker 1: it's sort of like when we talked about the topic
Speaker 1: of a abortion a long time ago on the podcast.
Speaker 1: It's like, that's not the ideal situation. You know, that's
Speaker 1: never an emergency. Contraception is not the ideal situation. That's
Speaker 1: why it's the emergency, like we said. But you know,
Speaker 1: I'm now I'm just repeating myself. Now, Well, I mean
Speaker 1: people aren't popping it like Candy. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: like young girls aren't just going out and having sex
Speaker 1: like you said and being like oh it's okay, I'll
Speaker 1: just go get an abortion tomorrow, or I'll just go
Speaker 1: get emergency contraception at the at the drug store. It's fine.
Speaker 1: You know, I think that's far less common than than
Speaker 1: something accidental has happened or something terrible has happened. And
Speaker 1: you know, like we saw with that huge jump in
Speaker 1: sexual activity and pregnancy race with fourteen year olds, we
Speaker 1: are by by setting what seems to me to be
Speaker 1: an arbitrary age limit of fifteen, we're shutting out a
Speaker 1: huge group of girls who need access. Yeah, access and
Speaker 1: and just education all around. Um. So we're recording this
Speaker 1: episode in May. You are listening to it right now
Speaker 1: in June. So I'll be curious to see it between
Speaker 1: now and when this podcast publishes, if there will be
Speaker 1: any movement legally. But I have a suspicion that the
Speaker 1: age limit will be lifted. I think at some point
Speaker 1: that will go away. But I want to hear from
Speaker 1: listeners about this access. I mean, is is it too
Speaker 1: is it too young? You know it should fifteen? Is
Speaker 1: it fine to leave that age limit at fifteen? Parents?
Speaker 1: What do you do? Would you do? As that in
Speaker 1: Why Times parenting blogger advice and say maybe we should
Speaker 1: just stock it for them? Hey, why not? Um, let
Speaker 1: us sell your thoughts on this more political than we
Speaker 1: usually go issue. Mom Stuff at Discovery dot Com is
Speaker 1: where you can send your letters. We'd also love to
Speaker 1: hear from you on Facebook or you can tweet us
Speaker 1: at Mom's Stuff podcast. And before we get to a
Speaker 1: couple of mess y'all have sent us, let's take just
Speaker 1: a quick break and we'll be right back. And now
Speaker 1: back to our letters. Well, it got a couple of
Speaker 1: letters here, and the first one I have is in
Speaker 1: response to an episode we did quite a while ago
Speaker 1: on a sexuality, and this is from Victory who wrote
Speaker 1: in saying I just wanted to thank you for your
Speaker 1: excellent podcasts and helping me understand my a sexuality. They've
Speaker 1: seen me through many a Monday morning and taught me
Speaker 1: so much about myself in the world from a feminist perspective.
Speaker 1: When you released your podcast on a sexuality, that was
Speaker 1: actually when I figured out that I was a sexual
Speaker 1: and everything that you described was what I had been experiencing.
Speaker 1: That was quite an eye opening experience for me because
Speaker 1: I finally realized where all of the confusion involving my
Speaker 1: sexuality came from. I came out to my friends when
Speaker 1: I was fifteen and had been openly a sexual ever since.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for everything, and thank you for writing in Okay.
Speaker 1: I have an letter here from Ashley. She says, I'm
Speaker 1: a biologist living in Baltimore, and I have an interesting
Speaker 1: topic that I hear from men now that I'm married.
Speaker 1: I call it the wedding ring phenomenon. I first heard
Speaker 1: about it right before we moved to Baltimore. We were
Speaker 1: having a goodbye dinner with a couple of friends when
Speaker 1: the guy, let's call him John, told us about how
Speaker 1: he will wear a wedding ring while trying to pick
Speaker 1: up women. I thought it was appalling and completely ludicrous,
Speaker 1: but my husband thought it made sense. The next time
Speaker 1: I heard about it, it it was from my husband's old boss,
Speaker 1: and more recently from his current boss. Apparently, they think
Speaker 1: that men wearing rings are considered ideal mates and that
Speaker 1: women will be attracted to them and hit on them.
Speaker 1: I don't agree with this at all. Back when I
Speaker 1: was single, when I saw a ring, I immediately thought
Speaker 1: that property has taken and moved on. My husband thinks
Speaker 1: that is more of a male view and believes that
Speaker 1: most other women think differently. He believes that when the
Speaker 1: average females he's a male with a wedding ring that
Speaker 1: she thinks that he must have desirable traits and then
Speaker 1: immediately wants the desirable man and acts on that desire.
Speaker 1: I was curious if you know of any research backing
Speaker 1: this wedding ring phenomenon or if the men in my
Speaker 1: life are just full of themselves. If you do find
Speaker 1: any research, she says, then I have some questions. Does
Speaker 1: it work both ways? Does it only happen between straight people?
Speaker 1: And to that, I say, we do have some answers,
Speaker 1: and if you want to read them, you should go
Speaker 1: to stuff Mom Never Told You dot tumbler dot com
Speaker 1: and you know, check out some cool stuff while you're there,
Speaker 1: including answers to wedding ring phenomenon. Yeah, and um, while
Speaker 1: you're at it, if you want to drop us a
Speaker 1: line about what whether or not you have ever witnessed
Speaker 1: this wedding ring phenomenon in action, you can email us again.
Speaker 1: Mom Stuff at discovery dot com is where you can
Speaker 1: send your letters. We also love to hear from you
Speaker 1: on Facebook and on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, and
Speaker 1: like Caroline said, we're tumbler as well. You can follow
Speaker 1: us where It's stuff I'm Never Told You dot tumbler
Speaker 1: dot com, and don't forget to watch us three times
Speaker 1: a week coming at you on YouTube. A YouTube dot
Speaker 1: com slash stuff mom never told you. Go on over
Speaker 1: there and subscribe for more on this and thousands of
Speaker 1: other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com