In a small victory for us reproductive justice advocates, emergency contraception will now be made available to both women and men as young as 17 without a prescription. It used to be that only those 18 and older could obtain it without seeing a doctor first, but the FDA lowered the age after a judge in the Federal District Court in New York ruled that the minimum age being 18 was a policy driven by politics, and not science. Ah, sweet justice.

Since EC became widely available to people 18 and over in 2006, it has not had any significant impact on abortion or teen pregnancy rates. This is because the amount of teenagers having sex and dealing with unplanned pregnancies is just too immense for EC alone to make a dent. In order for EC to effective lower these rates, it must work in conjunction with comprehensive sex education programs. No wonder teen pregnancy and abortion rates aren't lowering; too many teenagers who are victims of abstinence-only education don't even know what emergency contraception is.