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A new phone app now delivers hormonal birth control drugs---including the morning after abortion pill---directly to girls over the age of 12 without requiring a visit to the doctor.
This new program is being called the "Uber" for birth control.
Parents and grandparents--heads up.
Here's how it works.
Dr. Susan Berry writes, "NURX, a Silicon Valley start-up that has been in operation for two years, has been dubbed the 'Uber' for birth control drugs, the ring, Plan B, and ELLA directly to a young girl's front door."
NURX says, "We want to challenge the status quo, break down unnecessary barriers and give women more control over their health."
They are certainly breaking down barriers by delivering birth control---including abortion pills to 12-year-old girls who have not even consulted a doctor.
You might be wondering how these kids will pay for this.
The NURX website says this:
Don’t have insurance? No problem! We help you choose the right brand without breaking the bank. If you have insurance, it’s either free or the cost of your copay.
Begin with a few questions, chat with our doctors, and upload some identification. We’ll always try to prescribe you 3 months at a time for your convenience.
We take your health and data security very seriously. Nurx is HIPAA compliant, and we encrypt every transaction and conversation you have with us.
Their website assures teens that "a doctor in your state will review the request and write the necessary prescription."
Are parents of young teenagers notified? I couldn't find anything that indicated they were. The website does, however, assure the teenagers that all information and communications are encrypted for privacy.
The idea of a young girl, who's scared she's pregnant, responding to health questions through a health app and receiving drugs at her front door based on those responses is beyond "breaking down barriers"---it could be child abuse.
This is very troubling on many fronts.
Should young teenage girls be making these decisions without parental consent and input?
And should these kids be making the moral decision to take an abortion pill without guidance?
NURX says they are attempting to provide better health care for women.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List notes the very purpose of hormonal birth control is to alter the body's normal functioning.
She says, "[I]t is already established that levonorgestrel [Plan B] and other synthetic steroids induce endocrine-disrupting effects. Indeed, they are sold and consumed precisely for their endocrine-disrupting effects. The normal outcome of sexual intercourse in a healthy, fertile female may indeed be pregnancy. Thus, Plan B and other forms of 'emergency contraception' are designed to thwart the normal functioning of the female endocrine and reproductive systems, beginning with – and, indeed, targeting — the brain."
Dr. Robin Pierucci, a practicing neonatologist, wrote in the Federalist:
Teens face additional risks from taking hormonal contraceptives. Even for adults whose brains and bodies are fully developed, birth control pills have multiple, potentially serious, side effects. These fall into three general areas: increased cardiovascular events (heart attacks and problems from blood clots), increased breast cancer rates, and increased human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer rates.
For adolescents, there are even more complications: higher rates of blood clot issues than adults; problems acquiring adequate bone mass; and increased rates of depression.
She says, "Given the side effects we know about, plus what we are in the process of learning, pediatricians should be questioning whether to recommend hormonal contraception at all."
She says "increasing access while removing physician involvement is a step backwards for adolescent safety."
This is yet another example of the so-called progressive Left calling something "progressive," when in fact, it is both "regressive" and "destructive."
And it's an example of how the end always justifies the means to those who hold a secular, non-biblical worldview.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.