Word: provera
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...cause of the plunging figure is increased teenage abstinence, but another is that more and more girls are turning to an injectable form of birth control known as Depo-Provera. A hormone-based drug that works principally by blocking ovulation, it is the contraceptive of choice for 8% of white teens seeking birth control and 19% of blacks. This is a relatively modest demand compared to that for birth-control pills, but it's a stampede for a drug that wasn't even available in the U.S. until...
...reasons for such popularity are obvious. Unlike condoms, Depo-Provera is a set-it-and-forget-it form of birth control. Unlike the Pill, which demands compliance with a daily dosing schedule, Depo-Provera requires a single visit to a doctor's office for one injection every three months...
...Depo-Provera works, and for many communities plagued by teen pregnancies, that's what counts. Says Steve Trombley, president of Planned Parenthood in Chicago: "The word is out in the community about the three-month shot." With nobody wanting to return to the soaring teen-pregnancy rate of old, that word is likely to remain out--at least until even more kids remember the option of simply saying...
...castration, even if reversible, is cruel and unusual punishment that violates what experts call the right to "bodily integrity." They question the state's right to expose parolees to potentially dangerous side effects, and to prevent them from fathering children. They claim that determined ex-cons could reverse Depo-Provera's effects with other drugs--and that castration fails to treat the psychological roots of pedophilia. In fact, even Berlin, who favors the availability of voluntary chemical castration, opposes the California law. "There are many sex offenders for whom this is not going to be appropriate or useful," he says...
Well, the definition of enlightenment changes. Last week the California state legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill imposing weekly injections of a sex-drive-reducing hormone called Depo-Provera on all paroled, repeat child molesters. Judges could also order this so-called chemical castration for first-time offenders...