The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging doctors to issue teenagers prescriptions for the emergency contraception pill Plan B before they begin having sex. According to their new report, the drug is far more effective if used within 24 hours of conception and it could easily take that long for a teen to obtain a script for the drug.
The teen birth rate in the U.S. is currently about 34.3 births per every 1,000 women and while the AAP recommends pre-emptive contraception prescriptions, they acknowledge it's a short-term fix:
"That's tragic, really. We really can do better. By providing more education and improving access to contraception and more education about family planning, we can do better," policy co-author Dr. Cora Breuner, a physician at Seattle Children's Hospital, tells the L.A. Times.
Their recommendation was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
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