For Immediate Release
May 3, 2013
Minneapolis, MN – The Guiding Star Project reacted to the news of the approval by the FDA to allow sales of the “Plan B” Morning-After Pill to girls as young as 15 years old, without a prescription.   “We are saddened by this incredibly irresponsible action,” said Laura Ricketts, Executive Director.  “These are young teens – girls – who still need parental permission to get a Tylenol from a school nurse, yet they can purchase very powerful medication  capable of altering their hormonal chemistry without a parent’s or a doctor’s knowledge.  This is very troubling.”
The decision was handed down earlier this week and has come under the scrutiny of many organizations.  “This is why we have the Guiding Star Project,” remarked Leah Jacobson, Founder, “to speak the Truth about fertility and the goodness of the female body.  Women of all ages deserve to understand the richness and the beauty of how their bodies work, not be beholden to a dangerous medication whose side effects – especially on younger girls – have not been well documented or researched.”
Both Jacobson and Ricketts expressed fear that this decision will only make trafficking and exploitation of teens easier to get away with and will lead to many unforeseen fertility and health problems in the future for those young women who choose to capitalize on this drug’s new availability.
According to Ricketts, “It’s being explained away as an “emergency” drug, but it’s being displayed and marketed as a lifestyle drug – something that the creators of the drug have remarked it is not meant to be.  This should give everyone pause.  The opportunity for misuse and overuse is not to be ignored, and the side effects of such use could be grave.”
 
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Press Contact:
Laura Ricketts, Executive Director, The Guiding Star Project
540-514-107 ·   laura@theguidingstarproject.com