Last May I got a phone call from my little sister. Actually, I got seven of them. Sometimes, you just don’t want to talk to your thirteen-year-old sister. Finally, after a couple hours I called her back. She was at her best friends house, and she was crying. After assuring her that I would not be mad at her, no matter what she said, she told me that she’d taken drugs the night before and had sex with a guy from school; they hadn’t used a condom.
My first inclination was to get mad; she’s my little sister, she’s thirteen, and she was telling me that she’d been drinking and having sex. At the time, I was nearly twenty, and had never had more than a glass of wine. I didn’t have sex until I was 18. I’ve never been in a situation that would require me to get EC. This was a foreign situation to me – but my first responsibility was to make sure my little sister was safe, and save the lectures for later.
She didn’t want to tell our mom, and knowing that I couldn’t do anything from across the country (I was living in Washington DC at the time, and she was back home in Los Angeles), I called a friend, and asked her to take my sister to the nearest Planned Parenthood – the Planned Parenthood I’d volunteered at for nearly all of high school. She took her, stayed with her, supervised her while she took the first pill, and took her out to lunch and a movie afterwards. And, while I was glad my sister was ok, I was still really mad.
I wasn’t necessarily mad at my sister; I understand my mother has no rules, no discipline, and sets next to no standards for us. I was mad that my sister was in a social group that would allow things like this to happen. And I was mad that she didn’t know what to do in this situation – she knew about Plan B, but she had no idea how to go about obtaining it. Most of her friends didn’t even know it existed.
So, when I was approached with the opportunity to blog for Oops!, I jumped at the opportunity. I want to help spread the word about EC, and let girls and women out there know that there IS something you can do for yourself after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. No thirteen year old girl should be having a baby. No woman should have to have a baby she doesn’t want.
If you have a friend, family member, or even just a casual acquaintance ask you about EC, don’t judge, don’t get mad, don’t criticize or make unnecessary comments. Help them out, let them know that it’s ok, and be there for them – they obviously trust you, which is always a good thing.
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