A Pennsylvania teacher has been accused of “sexting”, or sending sexual messages to underage students and providing a teen with money to purchase the morning after birth control pill.
A 51-year-old Tunkhannock Area High School history teacher and drama coach sent inappropriate text messages to a teen and directed her and others to a blog with “disturbing” pornography, law enforcement charged.
Michael H. Chase, of Church Street, Dalton, is expected to be arraigned before Magisterial District Judge John Hovan Thursday morning facing three counts of corruption of minors.
Mr. Chase is accused of sending inappropriate text messages to a teen-aged girl starting when she was 14 in 2012 to this past June, according to Wyoming County Chief Detective David Ide.
He provided the victim with money to purchase a phone card, according to police, “so her parents wouldn’t be aware of such contact.” Police also say Mr. Chase provided the teen with money for the purchase of the morning-after birth control pill.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration said that the morning after pill should be available without a prescription for teenagers starting at age 15. “Plan B One Step” is a form of contraception that is highly controversial in the pro-life community because some studies show the pill can act as an abortifacient.
In April, Live Action explained why some pro-lifers are concerned about the FDA’s decision:
New studies have revealed that all forms of emergency contraception can cause abortion. A report by the Lozier Institute, the education and research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, summarizes the studies, explaining how each form and brand of emergency contraception can cause an abortifacient by changing the chemistry of a woman’s uterine lining, making it inhospitable to any human embryo that is conceived in her body.
These methods include the Paragard T 380, Ella® (ellaOne®), and Plan B. The primary mode of operation of these devices and drugs is to prevent sperm and egg from joining in the first place. But they do in fact interfere with implantation if they fail to, or are not taken/inserted in time to achieve the primary modes of operation.
Pro-lifers are also worried about the pill because it could be given to sexually abused minors, under coercion or without their consent.
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As LifeNews previously reported, Anna Higgins, J.D., director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, expressed her concerns regarding a federal order to make the “morning-after” pill be available to girls of all ages without a prescription.
“This ruling places the health of young girls at risk. Making Plan B available for girls under the age of 17 without a prescription flies in the face of medical information and sound judgment. I am very troubled that the court has not fully taken into account the concerns expressed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and many public health advocates that there is not enough data on the health effects of Plan B on young girls”
Higgins concluded, “There is a real danger that Plan B may be given to young girls, under coercion or without their consent. The involvement of parents and medical professionals act as a safeguard for these young girls.”
While it remains unclear if Mr. Chase was physically sexual with the student at his school, the case verifies that the accessibility of the pill can aid sexual predators and put the safety of girls at risk.
