Turning Point USA

In 2011, New York City public schools started the Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health (CATCH) program, which aimed to provide the “morning after” pill for students as young as 14 years old — without parental consent.

The unpublicized project originally launched in 13 public schools, but has now reached over 50 school clinics. A report from the New York Post in 2013 revealed that the city’s initial claims were significantly understated. “At the time, officials said 567 girls had gotten Plan B,” the Post wrote. “About 40 separate ‘school-based health centers’ doled out 12,721 doses of Plan B in 2011-12, up from 10,720 in 2010-11 and 5,039 in 2009-10, according to the newly released data.”

New York State law stipulates that minors do not need parental consent to receive contraceptives. This program has quietly expanded since its inception, Libs of TikTok recently suggested that if the number of student recipients obtained by the New York Post in 2013 remained consistent over the following years, more than 15,000 students may have received Plan B in New York City schools without parental knowledge. Additionally, more than 16,000 students would have obtained birth control pills without parental consent, should the numbers continue in a similar trend, as they had from years 2011-2013.

“We reached out to New York’s Department of Health to see how many students received birth control, the morning-after pill, and two different medications referred to as the ‘abortion pill’ mifepristone and misoprostol. We have yet to receive a response.”

Report from Libs of TikTok

Original reports on the CATCH Program reveal that schools would be supplying Plan B, a 72-hour emergency contraceptive, as well as hormonal birth control in both oral and injectable forms. Both forms require prescriptions, which are written by Health Department doctors via the CATCH program. Plan B, the most well-known “morning after” pill, is sold over-the-counter for adults 18 years of age or older, minors however, require a prescription, which can be obtained through the “school-based health canters.”

“Emergency contraceptive brands, claim to not be the same as an ‘abortion pill.’ However, the central active ingredient, levonorgestrel, has been found to possibly work as an abortifacient, rather than simply delaying ovulation.”

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The CATCH program now has 51 “school-based health care” sites, which all offer “reproductive health services” to 90 high schools in the area, according to the Department of Education. These centers prescribe treatments that can have permanent side effects — for young girls especially, but still do not involve the parents, even in the most serious circumstances. Hormonal birth control can have severely negative health affects. Birth control introduces high levels of synthetic estrogen to the body, which can cause a number of problems, including hormone imbalance, which can cause mood disorders.

The Department of Education does note that parents can choose to opt their child out of services offered, however, very few parents are aware of the program to begin with. According to the Libs of TikTok report, just 2% of parents in the city have chosen to opt-out, and the New York Post claimed that some parents never even received the necessary documents informing them that it was an option. The program intentionally keeps parents in the dark regarding their own child’s health care.

The New York Department of Education has continued to overstep its role in children’s lives for over 10 years now, this is an ongoing problem, as parental rights disappear around the country.