You may have heard that the FDA recently finished studying Plan B, and concluded it was safe and effective even for girls under the age of 17. That means the FDA found that they understood how to take the medication.
So Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled that on the basis that she didn’t think they would know how to swallow a pill. Because she hadn’t put months of rigorous scientific study into it, like the FDA had, but clearly she knew better. And Obama is backing her up. I give up, Obama. I’ve defended you on taxes and other issues, and saluted you for the co-pay-free birth control coverage move, but now I give up. This is unacceptable.
I’m going to join Melissa McEwan in pointing out what is obvious to us, but may sound far-fetched to nice people who don’t rape their kids, but: people rape their kids. People rape other people’s kids. Not every child has a supportive adult to go to with tough decisions like “What to do when Daddy has gotten you pregnant at age 11.” But it happens. And you know what? We don’t do a lot about it.
Obama Administration, since you obviously don’t know much about this topic, here’s a very helpful link:
Knowing my perpetrator would be protected by family members (and probably society), I felt defeated in the midst of the ongoing battle. He repeatedly assured me that I’d be blamed. For decades the words, “It’ll be all your fault,” haunted me.
And this, which really spells out the situation:
1. 60% of teens who become pregnant were sexually abused as children (Briere, 1989)
2. 95% of teen prostitutes were sexually abused (Jennings, 2001)
3. 32% of convicted killers in the U.S. were sexually abused as children (Blake in Jennings, 2001)
4. The chances of being caught for a sexual offense (of all kinds – exhibitionism, voyeurism, adult rape and child molestation) are 3%! (Anna Salter, PhD, 2003)
Since only 1 out of 10 child sexual abuse victims in the United States speak out and tell of the crimes against them, I can’t help but wonder how many thousands of us are still out there shrouded in silence, too afraid to speak.
Something else to consider: “Incest is common and happens in every community. An estimated 77% of reported sexual abusers are parents (57% of the total being natural parents), 16% are other relatives, and 6% are non-related. In addition, males are reported to be the abusers in 60 to 95% of cases. (Thoringer, School Psychology Review, 17 (4):614-636)”.
What’s the Department of Health and Human Services doing about this, Ms. Sebelius? Leaving it up to the FBI? Hmm, I thought as much. It’s obviously very much a Health and Human Services issue if it’s causing (directly or indirectly) unwanted pregnancies, which tend to have a higher infant mortality rate or can lead to botched illegal-style abortions (since getting a legal abortion is becoming harder, nor easier). It’s a Health and Human Services issue, Ms. Sebelius. Why aren’t you doing anything about it?
Oh, right – you are. You’re ensuring that raped young girls will have no recourse against pregnancy. You’re ensuring that, should a pregnancy compound the violation they’ve already survived, young girls will have no recourse but to become young mothers. Good heavens, do you think a girl too silly to take a pill is ready for motherhood?
No, I bet you don’t. I bet you live in some dream world where you the Secretary of Health and Human Services doesn’t need to know the low-down on child molestation and how it contributes to teen pregnancy. I wish I could live in that world with you, but sadly, I’m not ignorant enough to be the secretary of Health and Human Services.
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Jennifer Kesler,
we need a massive social dialog about a lot of things but i dont see that happening anytime soon, unfortunately—so much of this stuff operates at the subconscious level, thats why its so hard 2 make any headway
maggiemay(Quote) (Reply)
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