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Pediatric Group Recommends Prescribing Morning-After Pill to Teens in Advance of Actually Needing It

Nov. 26, 2012 9:28am Liz Klimas

American Academy of Pediatrics Suggests Doctors Should Write Teens Emergency Contraceptive Prescriptions in Advance

(Image: Shutterstock.com)

A national pediatric association is recommending that doctors prescribe women age 17 and younger the morning-after pill in advance of them actually needing it, under the assumption that they will be more likely to use the emergency contraceptive if they don’t have to make a doctor’s visit at the time.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued the new policy statement Monday. According to a report by Reuters on the statement, which is published in the December issue of Pediatrics, the group believes that because federal law prevents over-the-counter sales of such contraception to those under age 18, the teens will be more likely prevent unwanted pregnancy if they already had the necessary prescription on hand.

The battle for over-the-counter availability for emergency contraceptives was in the spotlight last year as the Food and Drug Administration overturned a 2005 ruling that prevented teens from obtaining pills like Plan B without a prescription. The Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius though overruled the FDA’s decision maintaining the requirement for a prescription for minors.

Reuters reported former FDA assistant commissioner for woman’s health, Susan Wood, saying of AAP’s new policy that “it’s not often you see physician organizations saying that their patients are better off without the physician involvement.”

Still, the policy statement made by the AAP is only a recommendation. Reuters reported that it’s up to pediatricians to take the academy’s suggestion or not. But Dr. Cora Breuner, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital who headed the AAP panel drafting the policy, said the group hopes pediatricians will take their advice.

“The Academy prides itself on a devoted membership,” Breuner said, according to Reuters.

Breuner also pointed out in the article that because the most popular forms of emergency contraception are high doses of traditional birth control hormones, it prevents ovulation from occurring — not implantation of a fertilized egg — and therefore the morning-after pill is not an abortifacient.

TheBlaze reported Breuner earlier this year speaking at a conference where she recommended pediatricians begin preparing parents of child patients to leave the room. We cited Internal Medicine News’ account of Breuner’s talk at the time. Here’s what she said:

She tells parents, “I really need to be your child’s physician, and it’s really important that I have a rapport with him or her. I need the child to trust me, and I need you to trust me,” she said at a conference sponsored by the North Pacific Pediatric Society.

“I need you to trust that I’m going to tell you if there’s a serious medical problem that is uncovered when your child talks with me. I will bring you in on that. Sometimes kids tell me stuff as a provider that they might not necessarily share with you,” said Dr. Breuner, professor of pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The AAP made their recommendation based on seven studies that found having a prescription for emergency contraception before actually needing to use it 1) did not increase sexual activity and 2) increased the likelihood that teens would obtain the pill in the event that they did need it, compared to those who didn’t already have a prescription.

“It’s just common sense that requiring a prescription is a barrier,” Bill Alpert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, told Reuters.

Alpert called AAP’s clearing minors for emergency contraception as “a big deal.”

Last week, in a similar move, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supported over-the-counter birth control as well. This group, though, didn’t address teen use of contraception though.

Read more about the policy statement in Reuters’ report here.

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Comments (33)

Uechi
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:18pm
They can recommend all they want. The problem is the whole group is comprised of lefty doctors who want to do more then suggest, they want their social and political agenda followed. If you doubt it look at their stance on the 2nd Amendment. Decisions on birth control for minors shoud be made by parents not doctors, teachers or politicians.

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aurora53
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:52am
Where are your daughters at? Why do they need the pill at the tender age of 17? Parents, have you done your homework or has this government influenced their lack of morality? Time to get back in touch with your children. If you don’t, then someone else will.

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rootytoottootin
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 5:04pm
A just in case pill? That’s like saying, “you have a bad cut on your finger, let’s just cut it off just in case it gets infected!” Good grief! You think you’ve heard it all, & someone comes up with something else. These are CHILDREN!, they should be taught by their parents to “just say no”, no matter what.

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petemg
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:38pm
This is just promoting girls to have sex. I agree it is better than abortion but let us teach young women that thy do not need to have sex to be popular. I think it is detrimental to their mental health to just have sex with anybody. Why not teach these girls it is okay to not have sex at such an early age,

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- hi
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:45pm
  At my teen’s high school, the girls don’t even have boyfriends. They have “friends with benefits” with everyone and their brother. It i a very liberal school. Their parents probably encouraged it.
  
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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:24pm
Hu et al. conducted a randomized, controlled trial of 2,000 postpartum women in Shanghai, China (who would have a strong incentive not to become pregnant within a year of giving birth because this is forbidden by the government). Half were given 3 courses of mifepristone to use at home as emergency contraception (EC) “as needed.” The other half (control group) had to see a doctor to obtain mifepristone. Both groups could also purchase a Plan B-type emergency contraceptive at supermarkets. Women in the first group used EC twice as frequently as those in the control group, but there was no difference in pregnancy or abortion rates after one year. “This study adds to the growing literature casting doubt on the increased use of EC as a quick fix for rising abortion rates. That is not to say that EC will not prevent pregnancy for some women, sometimes, but rather that it may not make much difference to public health.”

Xiaoyu Hu et al., “Advanced provision of emergency contraception to postnatal women in China

makes no difference in abortion rates: a randomized controlled trial,” Contraception 72 (2005): 111-6.

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- BlackConservativeBeckBot
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:00pm
  I’d rather we have this than pregnant teenagers who will have no education nor time to work as they become adults, and become welfare leeches. It’s people like this that put a burden on our government and force the government to hand out welfare checks making the government the baby’s daddy.
  
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- hi
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 3:48pm
  BlackConservative
  I’d rather get rid of welfare. Tell girls that any babies born 10 months from now will NOT receive welfare. Period. It’s the end of the program in 10 months. The father of the baby should foot half the bill, not the taxpayer.
  
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- brother_ed
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 5:29pm
  @HI
  
  I’m pretty sure BLACK is a troll…
  
  Report this comment
J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:23pm
Over 2,000 women in the San Francisco Bay area were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group was given packets of EC; the second was told how to obtain EC free from pharmacies; the third had to return to the clinic for EC. Over 80% of the women were also using another form of contraception. After six months, 7-8% of women in each group were pregnant. “We did not observe a difference in pregnancy rates in women with either pharmacy access or advance provision [of EC]; the adjusted risk of pregnancy for both treatment groups was not significantly less than 1. Previous studies also failed to show significant differences in pregnancy

or abortion rates among women with advance provisions of EC. It is possible that the effect of increased access on pregnancy rates is truly negligible because EC is not as effective as found in the single-use clinical trials, or because women at highest risk do not use EC frequently enough or at all.”

T. Raine et al., “Direct Access to Emergency Contraception Through Pharmacies and Effect on

Unintended Pregnancy and STIs,” Journal of the American Medical Association 293 (2005): 54-62 (www.dph.sf.ca.us/sfcityclinic/providers/Directaccesscontraception.pdf; visited Feb. 14, 2007).

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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:23pm
Anna Glasier concedes in her above-cited study that “EC may be less effective than we belief [sic]. Estimates of efficacy are unsubstantiated by randomized trials. Efficacy is based on rather unreliable data and a great many assumptions and have been questioned both in the past and more recently. … While advanced provision of EC probably prevents some pregnancies for some women some of the time, the strategy did not produce the public health breakthrough hoped for.”

A. Glasier et al., Contraception 69 op.cit., at 365

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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:22pm
Some of these 23 studies reviewed country-wide statistics on unintended pregnancy and abortion after EC became inexpensive (or free) and widely available in health clinics or over-the-counter in pharmacies. Other studies compared results between women given packets of EC for future use, and a control group of women who had to acquire EC on their own. In the latter type of study, women given EC in advance were more likely to use it, but no statistically significant difference in unintended pregnancy or abortion was found between the two groups.

The study by Raymond, Trussell and others, cited above, even casts doubt on the usual claims made for EC’s effectiveness for the individual user: “[W]e can be 95% confident that it reduces pregnancy risk by more than 23%. But just how much more remains poorly defined; the published efficacy figures … – on average, approximately 80% – may overstate actual efficacy, possibly quite substantially. Clearly, if the method is weakly efficacious, it is unlikely to produce a major reduction in unintended pregnancy no matter how often women use it.”

E. Raymond et al., Obstetrics & Gynecology, op cit., at 187.

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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:21pm
Even James Trussell who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could “result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates” has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to EC fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Raymond, Trussell and Polis, “Population Effect of Increased Access to Emergency Contraceptive Pills,”

Obstetrics & Gynecology 109 (2007): 181-8.

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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:21pm
“[T]he experts had estimated that we would see a drop by up to half in the rates of unintended pregnancy and the rates of abortion. And in fact in the real world we’re not seeing that.”

Kirsten Moore, President and CEO of Reproductive Health Technologies Project, quoted in A.W. Schachter,

“„Plan B‟: What Science Can’t Tell Us,” New York Post Online Edition, Aug. 11, 2006.

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J. ann
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:20pm
“The results in this paper do not provide evidence that schemes allowing emergency birth control to be provided in pharmacies free of charge to young people lead to significant changes in teenage pregnancy rates. This result is consistent with previous studies of the impact of emergency birth control, including those based on randomized controlled experiments. Given the hope that many policy makers and health professionals have held out for the potential of EBC in reducing unwanted pregnancies, this finding will be disappointing.”

Sourafel Girma and David Paton, “Matching Estimates of the Impact of Over-the-Counter Emergency Birth

Control on Teenage Pregnancy,” Occasional Paper Series, The University of Nottingham, October 2005, p. 17

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LestWeForget
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 2:13pm
If the Nanny State really cared, it would tell its children not to have sex because abstaining is the only guaranteed way to prevent pregnancy. Nanny would teach its children to have willpower.

But, wait, Nanny doesn’t want its children to have morals, willpower, or foresight. If children get too upstanding, too brave, too proud, too thoughtful and wise, they might one day turn on Nanny and demand their freedom.

No, no, Nanny knows it’s better to foster foolishness, poor decision-making, and a life completely free of any consequence for its children’s behavior, like having to tell mommy and daddy. That is the only way Nanny can remain in power, in control. And the only way its children can lose their consciences if not souls.

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- smv803
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 4:16pm
  Amen, lestweforget! It’s also cost free, Hurts no one and everyone wins in the end. This is “smart people” thoughts……oh, excuse me, I forgot what the average IQ is of the person that would disagree.
  
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hi
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 1:55pm
My daughter receives her self esteem from Christ. She also works hard at both academics and sports. Just saying to anyone with a young daughter that it is not inevitable that girls are going to go wild when they become a teen. Again Christ, school and sports were helpful with mine. Praise The Lord!

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Libertyluvnmomma
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 11:35am
Just wait til’ one of these teens learns the hard way that “plan B” has the risk of bleeding to death.
Darwin awards the Eugenicist Way

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toto
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 11:34am
If this is done, the companies that manufacture the drugs should never be held liable for ANY bad outcome. How many young girls will misuse the product or die from blood clots due to overdosing or other health issues? God forbid these girls should be taught and exercise self restraint.

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- naughtycal
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 12:12pm
  I have a feeling that these drugs will one day result in sterilazation of large amounts of the population.
  Science fiction always finds a way of becoming reality the Children of Men might one take be view as a prophesy.
  
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shotzie52
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 11:13am
Doesn’t anybody ever think of the consequences of high dose hormones in developing girls? Already we get too many hormones and hormone like substances from our environment, future cancers, infertility, endocrine disruption? I was a practicing RN for over 35 yrs and do not like the way medicine has gone, all medications all the time, screw the side effects and unintended consequences then wonder why our population is so sick, Pharmaceutical industry in bed with medical schools and the government, not the way to go

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IndyGuy
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:16am
Just give this Pediatric Group the morning after abortion…

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nothinghere
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:12am
but try to get an asprin,for your child at school,you need a notarised lawyers release.

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:06am
And so the nanny state grasps more power away from the parents.

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Cavallo
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:05am
Statutory rape laws are so antiquated and outdated. When will the religious nut jobs and conservatives join us in the modern century and recognize the sexual rights of children to choose their partners and have a happy sex life? / [SARC]

Those arguments are coming to the main stream soon. They’re already being whispered in small psychiatric professional meetings.

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- debbi59
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:55am
  Sexual rights of children? We are to protect children from perverts that wish to exploit them.
  
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RJJinGadsden
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:53am
As I read the above, this is a simple measure to skirt existing laws that require the under aged to receive a prescription while adults can purchase OTC. It puts the pre-prescription in the back pocket of the teen and can pretty well remove any knowledge and responsibility from the parent. Think that you could do this with Oxycontin? Good luck with that, at least for now.

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Argosy
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:39am
And the Feds will want to do this! Shameful. More reasons States should secede.

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- oldguy49
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:42am
  welcome to 1984
  
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DZ-015
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:39am
Can’t the kids just go to Planned Parenthood for their morning after pills?

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Tri-ox
Posted on November 26, 2012 at 9:34am
Young obamasluts in training.

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- Cavallo
  Posted on November 26, 2012 at 10:12am
  Promiscuity, abortion, and deviant sexual practices is a way to keep the population preoccupied and more pliant to rule. It destroys the mind and the will and any honest psychologists and even some ethical sociologists will tell you how damaging it is to the psyche. Damaged psyches are easier to break and trample on.
  
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