The government is handing out free viagra pills? Where? Any proof of this claim?
I’d rather pay for neither. It sickens me to see all these young people who don’t work and sit around and don’t work and have children on the taypayer’s dime.
Where do you see them all? Is this in a specific place?
Family members, friends of family, etc.
Bummer. Family is a great place to start sex ed, and education, period. Educated young people don’t want to be hampered by babies before they choose to have them. Maybe you could help out?
That’s what parents should do. I’m not their parents. Plus, it would be very creepy to start talking to my teenage cousins, etc. about sex.
" It sickens me to see all these young people who don’t work and sit around and don’t work and have children on the taypayer’s dime."
“Family members, friends of family, etc.”
Sound like a really great reason to makes sex ed and contraception easily, cheaply, and readably available. Instead of knocking it, you should be supporting it. You can be stubborn and ignore the facts of the situation or be pragmatic and logical and choose to subsidize something that will be less costly in the long run. Saying “neither” doesn’t make such situations go away.
It already is easily, cheaply, and readily available.
Sex Ed should start at home. Schools don’t have the responsibility to teach children everything about life.
What are the “facts of situation”? The facts of the situation is the government is making is WAY too easy to not work and do nothing and have children.
We pay, as tax payers, for half of all births in this country because they’re covered by medicaid. Yes, it’s a LOT cheaper to pay for contraception than not.
That’s something that’s not debatable. Whether you WANT to pay for it is another story but it’s unquestionably cheaper for us to pay for birth control than births.
SHOULD. SHOULD being the operative word in this. But we’re such a puritanical country that hundreds of thousands of kids do NOT get any sort of factual sex ed at home.
As someone who worked in adolescent sexual health for many years, the results of this are tragic. When kids don’t get comprehensive, fact-based sex ed they are significantly more likely to become pregnant (as a teen) and contract STIs.
I don’t think a lot of this has to do with religion, I just think it has to do with parents being embarrassed about talking about sex with their children.
My parents taught me nothing about sex. I learned everything on my own. Maybe that’s the solution? Until you are mature enough to have sex, then don’t have it. Imagine how great it would be if only mature, responsible people had sex? That is never going to happen because many people are always going to be irresponsible when it comes to sex, but it’s a nice thought.
“I’m not sure if you realized, but we are trillions of dollars in debt. Not sure how Fox News got into this discussion. I figured it was common sense that we are trillions of dollars in debt.”
@utex2011 – so you think “free” stuff put us a trillion dollars in debt? Free stuff like schools and libraries? Have you ever seen what most of our budget goes to? Hint: not the “free stuff”
Did anyone bother reading the article… the machinces arenot dispensing BC Pills (with the expection of plan B which is already available over the counter).
Yes, but @romanigypsyeyes added
I’m I the only one that has had a kid that needed to have the dosage adjusted for the pill? I’m still waiting to hear how the vending machine is goin to do this, no need to monitor blood pressure at all? Pleanty of other options for BC that don’t need to a doctor’s visit but long term homonial treatment is not one of them.
@3scoutsmom - I also prefer that a doctor be consulted for pill usage but I would be fine even with a pharmacist. All birth control and related doctor appointments should be free to make it very easy to access birth control. Condoms should also be free.
I have no problem paying higher insurance premiums or taxes to make birth control completely free to anyone who wants it. I currently donate monthly to Planned Parenthood because of the birth control I was able to access as a teenager because my mom refused to talk to me about that things like that.
As far as the vending machines in the article, that’s a step in the right direction. I have 2 girls and as soon as they let me know they were ready for birth control, they visited the doctor. My youngest said she was ready at 16 (she had been in a committed relationship for over a year). It about killed me but I didn’t want her pregnant or to have an STD (I told her the guy ALWAYS had to use a condom even though she had birth control pills). She had issues with several pill brands and her doctor always told her to wait three months before counting on the pills to be effective. That got her to 17 LOL! Yay doctor!
I don’t have an opinion about whether BC pill should be available without a prescription…
but I DO recall the outrcy when pregnancy tests became available over the counter. Doctors and “experts” thought it was a terrible idea, that women wouldn’t use the products correctly, that they needed medical oversight, bla bla bla. And somehow the world didn’t end, and women survived. Maybe the easier availability of the BC pill would also turn out just fine…
@katliamom I don’t remenber this as an issue but it could be I was too young to be attuned to it at the time. I’ll ask my mom about it, she was a very active volunteer in a pegnancy help center in the 70’s through the 90’s. One of their draws was offiering free pregancy testing. This center was neither pro choice nor pro life but provided services and information.
I think the pill should be available to any woman who wants it, but if dosage matters then it doesn't sound like it putting it in vending machines (like aceptaminophen and other generic OTC meds) would work. I'd be concerned about the effectiveness of any left sitting in a vending machine for too long too. Do they become less effective over time or is that not a problem?
Also what happens if someone is relaying on geting their bc pills from a vending machine at college, a pill that needs to be taken every day, and then they go off to an internship or study abroad where there are no such vending machines? Or someone doesn’t refill the vending machine?
Those sound like minor issues. And no one says the girls can’t go to a doctor and get a prescription. This is just an additional resource.
@jym626 if the girls can go to a doctor and get a prescription why not just do that instead of getting a drug from a vending machine?