The federal Food and Drug Administration decided this week that if your daughter is 15, she can reach for Plan B without a prescription to prevent pregnancy the morning after having unprotected sex.
This decision is morally and medically irresponsible.
Doctors are needed to guide teens in terms of pregnancy risks. The fact that a young girl is engaging in reckless sex is already a red flag to psychological vulnerability and instability. Teen pregnancy usually starts and ends in disaster; if not abortion, then an unwanted or unaffordable child.
A young teen may confide things to her doctor that she would never tell her parents. A request for Plan B is an opportunity for that conversation to take place.
Keep in mind, the morning-after pill has health risks that a doctor needs to keep track of. There may be nausea, vomiting or excessive bleeding — especially in young women who tend to have irregular menses. This risk increases in an unsupervised teen who may panic and overdose on Plan B.
There is also an increased risk of a sexually transmitted disease, since a girl relying on Plan B is more likely to skip use of a condom.
The decision to offer Plan B should be made on a patient-by-patient basis. It requires a physician who screens a patient for high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, depression and other conditions that increase the risk of side effects, including heart attack and stroke.
Finally, pregnancy can still occur after a woman or girl has taken Plan B — and the drug can even mask a pregnancy, including a life-threatening ectopic one.
The need for Plan B is a clear sign that a young teen has made a mistake. Offering this active chemical to her without a prescription is not a solution, it’s another mistake.
Dr. Marc Siegel is an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical correspondent.