IN THEORY:

While considering President Bush’s nomination of acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach to take the job permanently, several Senate Democrats grilled him on his proposal to restrict the morning-after birth control pill to women 18 and older. Two years ago, the FDA set the age requirement at 16 and last year it was 17. At Eschenbach’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) told him the FDA “has been turned into a political football, and you are on the field.” Eschenbach wants the company that makes the pill to put a plan in place to keep it out of the hands of anyone younger than 18. Clinton remarked that that would be like having local police hold brewers responsible for enforcing underage drinking laws. What do you think is an appropriate age for being able to use the morning-after birth control pill and why?

One set of rules requires us to take reasonable care of our bodies. Just as we would be obliged to take reasonable care of an apartment on loan to us, so, too, we have the duty to take care of our own bodies. Rules of good hygiene, sleep, exercise and diet are not just words to the wise designed for our comfort and longevity, but rather commanded acts that we owe God.

Hygiene and cleanliness for the sake of health and prevention of disease is important. We must educate our children at home and school on morality and medicine. Jewish law does not believe in free love. It states that there has to be an emotional bond between a male and a female. The younger the age, the harder it is to form this bond.

Even to my own surprise, Jewish law dating from the second century, permits a female minor above the age of 11 to use birth control. This is cited by Rabbi Elliot Dorff in his book “Matters of Life and Death.” He quotes Rabbi Bebai in the name of Rabbi Nahman: “A woman may use an ‘absorbent’ for purposes of contraception. This is permissible lest she becomes pregnant and die or a miscarriage results.”

An interpretation of the above is made on the basis that the health of the female, fetus or baby is at stake. Based on this point of view the diaphragm is the modern day “absorbent.”

The problem with a contraceptive pill is that it may have consequences on the woman’s age or body chemistry. Therefore a diaphragm is preferable as a method of birth control. It is easy to use and quite reliable.

All these factors, then, have tempered an otherwise liberal approach to contraception on the part of many non-Orthodox rabbis and most Jews.

RABBI MARC S. RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach

It is interesting that our culture believes that it is proper to limit teens under the age of 17 from certain movies rated NC-17, but at the same time thinks those same teens should have sexual freedom. I think if you are old enough to be drafted, vote and smoke, then you are old enough to make other choices granted to consenting adults. It doesn’t mean I approve or need to approve of your choices, but there comes a time when childhood passes away and we grant full admission into the adult world to our children.

The morning-after pill is another question. Honestly, I don’t understand the science of it enough to make a formal statement, but I do know that I believe that life begins at the moment a fertilized egg attaches itself to its mother. If someone is mature enough to make the choice to be sexually active, then they should also be mature enough to take responsibility for their choice.

My mom was 16 when she got pregnant. Against the ‘60s culture, she didn’t want to have an abortion or give me up for adoption. It wasn’t easy, but she did it in a culture where being a teen mom wasn’t acceptable. How many dreams die with every life taken? How many cures to disease are lost, or how many peacemakers will never have a voice? I just think that the conversation is so much bigger. When do parents stand up to lead and guide and stop abdicating to MTV the role of parenting their children?

LEAD PASTOR RIC OLSEN

The Beacon

Anaheim

Individuals mature at different ages. Maturity rarely occurs before fertility. Fecundity is solely physical; attaining full stature as a person is mental, intellectual, emotional, psychological and spiritual.

Maturity should be required for the purchasers of certain substances, but how?

Establishing an age requirement for users of the morning-after birth control pill would raise more questions than it would answer. Where’s the wisdom in settling on 18 because that is the minimum age to purchase tobacco, which is clearly dangerous to health, legally in the U.S.? How would such an age requirement be enforced? If someone violated the age requirement in purchasing the pill who might victims be?

Should sales clerks in pharmacies be required to ask “Are you mature enough to use this product responsibly?” I don’t think so! Think of all the items purchased at drug and other stores by those not sufficiently mature to use them responsibly even at an advanced age. Must recipients of this product be required to raise their right hand and swear a solemn oath to use it maturely? Responsibly? Faithfully? I wish.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON)

PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All

Angels Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Jewish tradition is that circumcision is performed on the eighth day, that one reaches religious maturity at age 13, and that the span of our years is three score and 10. It does not, however, take a position on the minimum age for purchasing a morning-after pill. Whether the threshold of permissibility is to be 16, 17 or 18 is not a religious question. Its availability by prescription or over the counter is beyond the purview of religion.

The larger issues are whether a person can access contraception, to what extent sectarian religious beliefs can affect the availability of scientific discoveries, and will such a pill fuel libertinism?

Only those who hold the position that all contraception is morally wrong can oppose this method of birth control. There is no distinction between Plan A, preventing pregnancy before intercourse, and Plan B, precluding it afterward. I cannot agree with Cardinal Egan who termed this pill a “chemical abortion,” since it does not interrupt an established pregnancy.

We all do things that may have unintended results. Often, we seek to obviate potential baleful consequences. That is what repentance, restitution and erasers are for. Should not a person who may confront an unwanted pregnancy, one that might be the product of rape for example, be afforded the instrument to avert conception?

In conversation, a college or university will be referred to as a “party school.” I respond that no matter what institution of higher learning a student attends, if he wants to find a party, then he will successfully locate one. So it is that if people intend to be sexually active, they will not be deterred by lack of easy access to a morning-after pill.

But nor will they be disposed to engage in sexual activity because they can procure such a contraceptive. Those who fear a plague of hedonism descending upon our land should first look around and note that it is already here and that the morning-after pill will not lead to measurably greater debauchery. I do not envision a host of Lotharios and Lolitas slavering over the prospect of such a scientific boon. Are people really determining their sexual lives around the pronouncements of the FDA?

One of humankind’s foremost character traits is its ability to justify, rationalize and excuse what we want to do. Those young people who will be sexually active, whether out of curiosity, ignorance, passion, foolishness, or the certainty of “love,” will take sexual license regardless of whether a pill is available that they might ingest the following day.

Because I believe it is a woman’s right to determine whether to carry and bring a child into this world, because I believe that one’s personal religious creed should not be adopted as the law of the land, because I believe people will often do what they wish to do regardless of consequences, and because I believe people are deserving of second chances, the morning-after pill should be readily available.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

I don’t think there should be any age restriction. If a girl or teen is old enough to be the victim of rape or incest, she is old enough to buy emergency contraception, regardless of whether she wants to discuss it with her parents. We know that the incidence of these crimes is high and the reporting is low. A girl who is suffering from the molestation of a father, brother or older man should be given every resource or option.

While it is preferable for a teen to consult her parents, it is unrealistic to think that all girls will be able to do so or that this will result in improved family relations. There may be an absent or abusive father, a mother with issues of addiction or a variety of serious barriers to trust and communication. The consequences should not be an unwanted teen pregnancy, followed by either abortion, adoption or another child raising a child. In California the public has voted against parental notification requirements for abortions for similar reasons.

The best situation is for parents to provide their children with guidance about the spiritual and ethical values of sexual conduct and to create an environment where their teens turn to them in times of need. The family, school and church or temple should provide information and perspectives to help teens to make good decisions about relationships, love, sexual activity, contraception and safe sex. In Zen Buddhism, the precept of “not misusing sex” must be interpreted and applied by each practitioner, based on his or her sincere questioning and listening in meditation and in the experiences of life.

Will more teens have sex more frequently and at earlier ages if they have access to emergency contraception? I don’t think fear of pregnancy has served as an effective deterrent to teen sex, but I do believe that emergency contraception will lower abortion and birth rates. Because the drug is most effective if used within 24 hours of unprotected sex, it is imperative that a girl not be delayed by doctor appointments, fear or shame about seeking help, prescriptions, problems buying the medication or other unnecessary impediments.

Opponents of legal abortion contend that stopping ovulation or preventing a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus is the taking of human life. They want to impose this view upon everyone in any way they can. They were not successful in preventing distribution of this medication in the U.S. They wanted to allow those pharmacists who object to the medication the option not to fill the prescription but shift the burden of finding an alternative to the customer. They next tried to stop emergency contraceptives from being sold over the counter rather than by prescription. Their last battle is over the age at which a teenage girl may buy it.

I wish the time, money and energy that is being spent on attempts to re-criminalize abortion, protect stem cells and defend fertilized eggs would be directed to the children and adults who are suffering from wars, disease and the lack of basic human necessities.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa