The Obama administration announced Monday that it would drop its fight to maintain age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraceptives. The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and Anna Higgins of FRC’s Center for Human Dignity responded on yesterday’s Washington Watch by outlining the supposed consequences this decision will have on young girls.
Perkins lamented that “inappropriate sexual behavior,” such as “date rape” and relations between adults and minors, “can easily be dealt with” now that the pill is available to minors without parental consent, while Higgins warned that the pill will now “be available to people who are preying on young girls,” despite the fact that allowing minors to purchase Plan B has no relation to its availability to adult predators.
Higgins: This over the counter access is really- another health concern is it’s going to be distancing girls who are at high risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases or being sexually abused from accessing medical care or from talking to their parents about these issues.
Perkins: Let me zero in, Anna- Anna Higgins is my guest, you’re listening to Washington Watch, I’m your host Tony Perkins. We’re talking about a decision that came from the Obama administration last night to drop their appeal of a judge’s ruling out of New York that would require over-the-counter sale of Plan B, the one-pill version that’s sold by Teva. The issue of sexual exploitation, now that this drug is available over the counter, it’s easy if there is a case of inappropriate sexual behavior, whether it’s a date rape or something else, it can be, or an adult that’s having relations with a minor, that can easily be dealt with without any participation of a parent or other medical experts or guidance provided that could protect that child in the long run.
Higgins: Yeah that’s a grave concern that’s being glossed over by the proponents of this decision. You know they’re really not addressing this. It’s a very serious concern. Because what we have here is a way for this kind of emergency contraceptive or Plan B to be available to people who are preying on young girls and these young girls are avoiding their first line of defense which is parents and doctors, you know, and protecting them against people who would prey on them. So you know this is available like you said to any age, there’s no age limit now, so you know these young girls could be potentially eleven, twelve years old and the idea that they’re being preyed upon by sexual predators is a very real possibility.
