Women in New York City now have another option for birth control if their Plan A fails.
A federal judge ruled on April 5, that the contraceptive drug, Plan B, can be purchased over the counter without a prescription, regardless of age. Plan B is a pill that is effective in preventing pregnancy shortly after sexual intercourse.
There is a large amount of controversy surrounding this decision. Many people are against the idea of women having such easy access to Plan B, especially young girls who no longer need a parent to buy it.
“The Catholic Church is against Plan B, the church believes and holds that life begins at conception,” Father Paul Wood of the Queens College Catholic Newman Center said. “What Plan B does is that if conception has already taken place it dispels the ovum [a human embryo] and acts as an anti-implantation function that prevents a possible fertilized ovum from being implanted in the uterine wall. The final result would be the expulsion and loss of the embryo.”
Wood firmly believes that people should remain abstinent until marriage. If a woman were to become pregnant, he feels they should explore other options such as adoption rather than resort to a method such as Plan B.
“That would be what the church would hold and therefore that’s what I hold,” Wood said.
This ruling could also mean giving college women another option in preventing pregnancy and possibly having to drop out of school. A recent study by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University found that as many as 24 percent of college women experience an unplanned pregnancy while in college.
“It is a good thing in general since it means more girls have a bigger opportunity to avoid unwanted pregnancies,” junior, Tamela Jean said.
Not all students agree with the court’s decision to make Plan B so easily accessible, especially to women under the legal age limit.
“I’m not completely against Plan B being made available to the public, however, I do believe that there should be certain regulations put into place,” senior, Danielle Chaim said. “It should not be readily available for younger girls.”