Obviously Obamacare needs to include shame free access to birth control. Not something that shows up in a bill (it does) when covered when your teen gets it.

Apparently, the author is hung up on semantics, thinking "contraception" only means protection used DURING sex, and not taking into account the very obvious fact that "The Pill", implants and IUD's, for example, are used BEFORE sex while Levonorgestrel (AKA "Plan B") is used AFTER sex.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with you on this one Dan. What a world we live in.

I haven't tried to buy any since Obamacare went into effect. Are they less expensive than they used to be?

Its a miracle teens are using ANYTHING AT ALL, what with the shit sex education they get. When they are given such egregious misinformation from so called "abstinence only" sex ed, their only choice becomes solving sex related problems after-the-fact, be it an STD or unplanned pregnancy (or in the case of plan b, the potential for an unplanned pregnancy).

God help the gay kids. Those poor fucks are on their own.

I think the author misspoke with the "not very good at contraception." I assume he meant that teens, through lack of parental support or access to other forms of birth control (e.g. IUD's, depo) are less likely to have or be properly using that first line of defense birth control.

the NDPTUP is more about promoting celibacy than preventing pregnancy.

I don't know if I agree with Dan. Is the morning after pill really an optimal plan A? Is it not a massive dose of hormones that often causes nausea, cramps, bleeding, headaches, etc? It also does not protect against STDs.

I'm not a doctor or a parent, but I would definitely be telling my kids that condoms are plan A and the morning-after pill is a legitimate, though not preferred strategy.

Also, where is vasalgel? That would solve so many problems.

@8:

True, condoms SHOULD be the preferred method because of their ability to prevent STD's. But Levonorgestrel is still better than not using any form of contraception, and frankly, the symptoms you describe don't sound any worse than a typical hangover - well, except perhaps for the bleeding part.

@8: I've used the morning after pill about 4 times (maybe 5; I can't remember). It never produced any of the side effects you mention. I felt nothing but relief. YMMV, but I think you may be confusing the side effects of Plan B (Levonorgestrel), also known as "the morning after pill" with those of RU 486 (Mifepristone and Misoprostol), also known as "the abortion pill."

@8

Nope, it's not a massive dose at all. Sometimes causes some very mild side-effects, and often causes irregular bleeding, but it's actually quite a safe medicine to take.

Plan A should be dual protection - condoms plus hormonal/long-acting contraception. But the reality of many young people's lives makes Plan A unattainable. Plan B is a pretty great Plan B.

those afraid of the side effects of "plan B" didn't choose "plan A" and therefore may have all the side effects of "plan p" - pregnancy.

@10: Oh really? You might be right. My comment was based just based on what I've personally witnessed. But then again I am shocked at how potent of a mood destabilizing effect regular old birth control pills can have on women considering how commonly used they are.

I acknowledge that they are the best option available (you can't put your reproductive fate in the hands of a horny male!) but I've seen some hormone-induced insanity that I just can't forget. I guess it's colored my opinions. Kinda also where the vasalgel remark came from. (google tells me it's currently being tested on baboons and could hit the market by 2017)

@10 & 11
Someone close to me took those pills all the time (to appease a condom-resenting partner... ) and she had a *lot* of bleeding. I just wish there was more encouragement for people to use condoms.

Is there not a fact based, sex positive online course of sex education for young people? If not, why not? Such a resource would be easily available to most kids and could be accessed privately, avoiding the interference of parents and other abstain only-idiots. Just like the It Gets Better campaign reaches kids who are trapped deep behind enemy lines, providing them life saving information. The internet is the best subversive tool ever devised. If you build it, they will come...

The morning after pill, is not contraception. Because conception may have occurred.

@kwodell: Our Whole Lives, perhaps? I've heard things about it, but have no experience myself.

@15 I don't know about a 'course' but Scarleteen.com is amazing.

@the side-effects thread: I didn't have irregular bleeding after like @17 did when I took it as an adult, but I had nausea, cramps, etc. If I'd been a teenager lying to parents, I guess I could have claimed I was having an unusually bad period, but it would have been a miserable few days trying to go to school, or begging off sick. I wouldn't want to use it again, myself, definitely.

Not to mention the thing is fucking expensive ($30 or more, if memory serves?), which makes it a shit 'Plan A' for broke teens even without considering the STDs and (for some girls/women, I think we can all agree from the anecdata on this thread?) possible side effects. Even really fancy condoms at a really bad markup are like a buck.

Yeah, actually, I'd say if anyone is using as their first plan a no less -- even more! -- embarrassing to buy thing at the drug store than condoms, which costs quite a bit and might make them sick, even obviously so, for two or more days? Then they're bad at contraception. So I guess I disagree with Dan. Unless these teens are really having sex very rarely and yet monogamously/with clear STD tests, AND the girl has already used Plan B and knows it doesn't cause bad side effects in HER body, AND they have plenty of spending money...not a good tool for the job. Not to mention, look at the article I linked below at LavaGirl: if you've already ovulated before you take the thing, you're SOL, it won't help you.

Look, it depends on what you mean by 'bad at contraception'. Is it better than nothing? Yes. If another, better option fails, is it a responsible, great option? Yes. As a Plan A, it might be a passing grade and stop you from getting pregnant. But a C- is a passing grade but I wouldn't call it 'good'. YMMV. Apparently Dan's does. As someone said upthread, it's a miracle if kids contracept at all, the way sex ed is in the USA: so maybe that's the curve we're grading on.

@16 Nope, Plan B does not work after conception. People used to guess one of the ways the pill worked was stopping a fertilized egg from implanting, which anti-contraception folks used to claim it was 'an abortion pill'. It's now been found it doesn't work tha…

While I completely agree with Dan that using Plan B is smart and that it should be encouraged and not stigmatized (and it should be free, at least for teens--that's the case in France, e.g.), I strongly disagree that contraception with a failure rate of over 10%--higher for overweight women--is an acceptable plan A for anyone who really, really wants to prevent getting pregnant.

Alls I knows is, there's too many damn humans on this planet, and anything and everything that can keep our viral selves in check should be subsidized and encouraged. Personally, I think governments all over the world should put sterilization drugs in public water supplies.

If we could cut the Earth's human population by at least 25% by the year 2300, we just might have a shot at surviving as a species.

Ok, sorry, a little off-topic. Carry on.

@16... Emergency contraception is not an abortifacient. It is absolutely contraception, and works by preventing/delaying ovulation.

(This point was also made by Cat in fez @19, but I wanted to make sure it didn't get lost)

@21 Ehh and who's going to work when your generation becomes old?

@21 - I am aware of this problem (as I am Aware of all Internet Traditions(TM) ) - that's why I said the year 2300. Population reduction has to happen gradually, or you get the well-known economic problem of suddenly having way too few earners paying the social and medical costs for way too many retirees. Heck, let's say by 2400. But the point is, we've *got* to start heading in that direction, or we're all in big trouble. This is the one topic that politicians don't even give enough lip service to, let alone do something about.

Darn it, I meant @23. Sorry Ginnie.

@15 Bedsider has a series of pretty good videos. And I am a little dubious about Plan B's greatness as a plan A. It basically floods your system with hormone to put the brakes on ovulation. Odds of you pending ovulation at any given day are pretty low, and you're likely just throwing a dose of irrelevant hormone into your system. Who really knows what that does? The combo pill was out for what, 60 years before the medical establishment broke down and admitted that it kills libido. The IUD is being pushed pretty hard lately, and they don't even know how it works at all. They think it destroys or immobilizes sperm, after years of thinking it prevented implantation. I am old enough to remember when the insert that came with your pills said they worked that way as well. Also old enough to remember that you could use a week's worth of Ortho Tri Cyclen as Plan B. The internet wasn't invented yet, so the exact dosage was a matter of urban legend. The more things change the more they stay the same, eh?

While using Plan B as the sole line of defense is not a good idea, Dan was spot in in alluding to the issue of access. It's not that teens are bad at contraception, it's that prescription free Plan B can be obtained far more easily than the regular old pill, or a diaphragm. Heck, getting my IUD practically required an act of Congress.