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Earlier this week a story broke about a Staten Island high school dispensing the morning-after pill to students without notifying the parents.
In an article by Jillian Jorgensen on silive.com, she reports that “Port Richmond High School is one of 13 public high schools across the city making emergency contraception — better known as the morning-after pill — available to girls without parental consent.”
One of my co-workers at Priests for Life, Marie Elliott-Saile, who was interviewed for the article is very upset by this because her 15-year-old daughter attends Port Richmond. Although the school system says that they sent letters home for parents to opt out of the program, Marie said that she never receive a letter telling her about the program.
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The article also states that Janet Morana, executive director of Priests for Life, who was also interviewed for the article, says that “the program is just an extension of the law that allows girls to get an abortion without parental consent” and “that contraceptive pills like Plan B — which prevents pregnancy by using hormones the way normal birth control pills do, but in a higher dose — can increase the risk of cancer, and if a girl is adversely affected, her parents and their insurance would be left to deal with her care.
“I think it’s just horrific that this is all allowed to be done,” she said. “It shouldn’t have to be opt-out. You should have to opt in. The parent should have to consent to this because it’s affecting your child, your minor child.”
They are very tricky in the way that these programs are implemented. Unlike most other types of health related items like aspirin, the school cannot give it to students without permission given without parental consent. Why don’t schools just send letters to parents telling them that they will be able to give them any medication unless the parents opt their children out? Parents would not stand for it.
Yet when it comes to something as harmful as birth control nobody bats an eye. Most parents don’t stand up for their children. I applaud Marie and Janet for their willingness to stand up for the students.
I was interviewed by Sean Hannity on Tuesday regarding this story. The interview can be heard at my African American Outreach HERE.
To read the entire article by Jillian Jorgensen, click HERE.
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