( CNN ) -- New York City parents who are raising questions about the city 's plan to expand its pilot program of dispensing contraception , including the morning-after pill , to high school students are doing what parents should do . They 're asking questions . If they seek information from credible sources , they will learn that when taken within five days of intercourse , the morning-after pill Plan B , which contains one of the hormones found in regular pills , is safe and effective . They also will learn that other forms of contraception have been available in many New York City public high schools for years . This new plan , open to all , is actually designed for girls who have been hardest to reach . These young women , from poor and working-poor families , are much more likely than others to get pregnant by accident . Then , one of two things happens : A girl gets an abortion , or she has a baby she can not support . Neither New York City 's school authorities , nor Mayor Michael Bloomberg , finds those options desirable ; both are quite rightly supporting the expansion . According to Joanna Kuebler of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care , about 40 % of school-based health centers in the United States are allowed by their school districts to dispense contraception . Sixty percent of centers are prohibited from doing so . Requirements for parental consent vary . New York 's effort to reduce teen pregnancies appears to be among the largest and most comprehensive . What hangs some people up is the school administration 's decision , during the recent pilot phase of the project , to allow parents to opt their children out of it . Parents received letters in the mail describing the program and telling them that their child would be in the program unless a parent disallowed it in writing . Only 1 % to 2 % of parents denied permission . It 's a good bet many parents did n't read the letters , or if they did , thought their daughter was n't having sex , or were n't sure how they felt -- so they did n't do anything . New York schools ' Plan B program draws critics , supporters . The school system took their silence as an endorsement and moved to expand the program . I think I probably would have done the same thing . But opponents said a fairer way of judging parents ' attitudes would have been to require them to opt their children in if they wanted them in the program . They argued that that would require a student and parent to talk to each other about the student 's sexual activity -- a good thing . Advocates for the city 's plan offered a credible response . They said that many students and parents would avoid such a discussion . Absent parental approval , students who were already sexually active , or about to be , would be in the same boat as before : unable to easily acquire contraception after either consensual or nonconsensual sex . We live in one of the richest , most well-educated countries in the world , yet we have the highest teen birth rate of comparable countries . That is simply not right . Yes , parents are children 's first teachers and moral guides , but they need assistance , which is what the New York City system is attempting to provide . No reliable scientific evidence shows that the availability of birth control encourages young people to start having sex earlier . And there is good evidence that the increased availability of birth control , as well as improved sex education , has lowered the teen pregnancy rate dramatically . According to data released this week by the National Center for Health Statistics , the teen birth rate in 2011 -- about one birth for every 32 girls -- is the lowest it has been since the 1940s , when the center began to track childbearing . A lower teen pregnancy rate means a lower abortion rate . Among the 7,000 girls ages 15 to17 who got pregnant last year in New York City , nine out of 10 pregnancies were unplanned , and almost two out of three resulted in abortions . For that reason alone , we should embrace New York 's efforts to make all forms of contraception accessible , as well as affordable and safe . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Laura Sessions Stepp .
N.Y.C . expands program to dispense birth control in high schools with morning-after pill . Laura Stepp : The U.S. has the highest teen birth rate of comparable Western countries . Stepp : No evidence contraception encourages teens to start having sex earlier . Stepp : Birth control lowers teen pregnancy rate , which means fewer abortions .