Too important not to share

We're extremely pressed for time, but I need to do my part to get this out. Seems that the American Academy of Pediatrics is now putting your child's doctor or notice that he or she has "a moral obligation" to provide the "morning after pill" to your daughter even though she is not sexually active. If your doctor is hindered from doing this because of troublesome ethical scruples, he/she still has a "duty" to bring a more enlightened colleague on board to handle the matter.

Here is a write-up I received from a medical professional from a medical information service:

To reduce teenage pregnancies, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a policy statement November 26th 2012 urging pediatricians to supply or prescribe in advance emergency oral contraception / "morning-after pill"s to teenagers . "Advanced prescription for emergency contraception means providing a teenagerwith a supply or a prescription for emergency contraception before it is needed." "Pediatricians should provide levonorgestrel 1.5 mg (Plan B, Plan B One Step, or Next Choice) for teenagers in immediate need of emergency contraception and provide prescriptions/supply for teenagers to have on hand in case of future need (ie, advanced provision)." [1]


Pediatricians with ethical reservations about this "have a duty to inform their patients about relevant, legally available treatment options to which they object and have a moral obligation to refer patients to other physicians who will provide and educate about those services. Failure to inform/educate about availability and access to emergency-contraception services violates this duty to their adolescent and young adult patients." [1] According to Medscape the AAP " supported OTC status for Plan B One-Step regardless of age. The US Food and Drug Administration was ready to grant their wish last year, but US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the agency, saying that girls who reach menarche at age 11 years lacked the maturity to use the drug." [2] 

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/11/21/peds.2012-2962.full.pdf

 

http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Recommends-Emergency-Contraception-Be-Available-to-Teens.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR%3a+No+local+token


Here is one physician's reply to this post:

 

 "Pediatricians often dispense samples of medicines to patients to start treatment as soon as possible or for a full course for those in finacial difficulty. We supply vaccines which are a medication that we could write a presciption for and have parent fill at pharmacy and return to office with it in cooler so that it can be administered by us. The real question is whether we ethically object to giving or informing an immature teenager to take a medicine that she often will not need and so make her ill, albiet temporarily, or a medicine that will kill the genetically unique human zygote that's life has begun in her fallopian tube or uterus."