One physician doesn't think it's ethical for the American Academy of Pediatricians to urge all doctors to counsel underage girls and provide a prescription for the "morning-after" pill to keep in advance of intimacy.
For the most part, the prescriptions would be given to 13- to 16-year-old girls. Dr. Patricia Lee June is with a different organization, the American College of Pediatricians, which opposes the suggestion. She cites studies that reveal that the "morning-after" pill does not reduce the unplanned pregnancy rate.
She is also concerned that it increases early sexual activity and allows older men to prey on young girls.
"For girls in the 13- to 15-year age range, a high percentage of them are impregnated by men over age 20," Dr. June reports. "And being able to say hey, just take this pill and you won't get pregnant makes it much easier for them to coerce or seduce them."
And she notes another factor that has apparently been discarded: "The parent is not in the loop."
"Children's brains are not mature until the mid-20s," the doctor explains. "They can't make mature decisions, [so] the parents need to be involved."
As for the doctors who follow the Academy's suggestion, Dr. June tells OneNewsNow, "Let's just say their ethics are not the same as my ethics." But she believes a large number of pediatricians will ignore the recommendation because it simply "doesn't make good sense to them."
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow.com
