At least 13 high schools in New York City will be providing morning-after pills and other birth control drugs to their students without parental consent, the New York Post reported on Monday.
According to the Post, the move is part of CATCH (Connecting Adolescents to Comprehensive Health), an initiative to reduce the number of teen pregnancies in the city.
The schools will provide “Plan B” emergency contraceptives as well as oral or injectable birth control to female students without letting parents know, the Post reported. Parents, however, can opt out of the program.
This marks the first time New York City high schools provide forms of birth control to students, although they have provided sexually active students with condoms in the past. According to the Post, the high schools will also be among the first in the nation to supply students with birth control and emergency contraceptives.
The Post reported that five schools last year dispensed Plan B pills to 567 students and Reclipsen birth control pills to 580 students in a pilot program. Beginning in the fall, birth control injection Depo-Prover will also be available. Both oral and injectable birth controls are provided through prescriptions written by Health Department doctors.
CATCH was originally expanded to 14 schools in the past year but was reduced to 13 when one school, Seward Park Campus in lower Manhattan, overwhelmed medial offices. Parents from the 14 schools were sent notices of the program and were allowed to opt out of CATCH, the Post reported.
According to Department of Health spokesperson Alexandra Waldhorn, about 1 to 2 percent of parents at each school have decided to opt-out of the program.
The emergency contraceptive, Plan B, which must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, is normally sold as an over-the-counter drug but requires a prescription for patients under 18. According to the Post, students under the CATCH program will be required to tell school nurses that they had unprotected sex and will have to undergo a pregnancy test before being issued the drug.
The new program received varied responses from students, their parents and some educators. High School of Fashion Industries in Chelsea sophomore Annette Palacios, 15, and her mother, Pania, told the Post they did not like the program saying that parents should be aware of what is given to their children.
Some school educators echoed those concerns. “We can’t give out a Tylenol without a doctor’ s order,” said a school staffer told the Post. “Why should we give out hormonal preparations with far more serious possible side effects, such as blood clots and hypertension?”
However, others believed the program would be helpful to teens that can become pregnant after unprotected sex. Rosa Chavez, a teacher at the Chelsea high school, told the Post, “If they made a mistake, they could still do something about it.”
Schools participating in the CATCH program are: Adlai Stevenson and Grace Dodge in the Bronx; Boys and Girls, Clara Barton, W.H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education, Abraham Lincoln and Paul Robeson in Brooklyn; Port Richmond on Staten Island; and John Adams, Newcomers, Queens Vocational and Technical, and Voyagers in Queens.