New York City schools handed out 12,721 doses of Plan B last year without parental consent

A minor can't get a tattoo without parental consent, so why were these teens able to get an abortifacient without it?  And if the school thinks Plan B is so wonderful, why did they hide it from the parents?


New York City schools distributed 12,721 doses of the “Morning-After Pill” to students last year, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The 40 school-based “health centers” also performed thousands of injections of long-term contraception and implanted intrauterine devices (IUDs).

Under state law, schools do not need to obtain parental consent to dispense the drugs. The $2.7 million program has provided contraceptives to 22,400 teens as young as 14.

Last September, the district announced that the city Department of Health had distributed Plan B to 567 teenage girls, and another 580 received Reclipsen birth control. But the New York Post, which filed the FOIA request, discovered the program went far beyond what officials had previously admitted.

In new documents the district reveals it distributed 10,720 doses of “Plan B” in the 2010-11 school year, and 5,039 in 2009-10, the program's launch year.

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