NEW YORK (AP) - The New York City Department of Education is making the morning-after-pill available to high school girls at 13 public schools.
Connecting Adolescents to Comprehensive Health, known as CATCH, is part of a citywide plan to prevent teen pregnancy. School nurse offices supplied with the contraceptives can reportedly dispense "Plan B" emergency contraception and other oral or injectable birth control to girls as young as 14 without telling their parents -- unless the parents opt out of the program after receiving a school letter informing them of the new policy.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says she supports the program because high school students are sexually active and getting pregnant.
The city says about 7,000 girls get pregnant by the time they reach the age of 17. It says more than half choose to get an abortion.
NYC schools already distribute free condoms to students.
The Plan B distribution could be the first of its kind in the nation. The National Association of School Nurses said it could not locate another school district that supplies Plan B.
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