South African Organization Investigates Morning-After Pill Sales

A common concern amongst the public is that there is a pill for everything. Whether or not this is a problem is debatable, the fact that once something starts to feel wrong or bad, we pop a pill. Well, this latest story might cause some to be concerned.

The Pharmaceutical Society in Pretoria, one of three capital cities in South Africa (I had to look it up)  is investigating the distribution that can be taken up to 120 hours after the act to prevent an undesired pregnancy. Turns out that if you're of the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive that can be taken under 14, you need to bring a parent or legal guardian with you to the pharmacist in order to get the pill. within 72 hours after sex to prevent pregnancy. Turns out there's an even more potent version of the pill There's a couple of problems with that in my opinion. One, are kids that young really engaging in that act? I was playing video games and basketball at that age, which obviously shows the generation gap between my time and kids now. Second, I can't imagine a lot of kids that age telling their parent about that act , then convincing them to go with them to get that pill. Third, it's pretty bad that a pharmacist would distribute the pill to kids under 14 without going through the parents anyway.

I know that people probably read a story like this and think that it's not a problem here because it's thousands of miles away and likely wouldn't happen here. While I'd like to believe that that's true, I wonder if such a problem could exist here as well where pills of all sorts seem readily accessible to so many. The morning-after pill itself has generated a lot of controversy and if children are getting their hands on it, is it becoming merely a safety net or what's going on here?