nyc.gov

"Research has shown that access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

Does this mean we can fully ditch that god-awful ad campaign now? In March, New York City's own teen pregnancy prevention efforts came under fire for a series of subway posters featuring tearful, defeatist babies. "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen," some read. "Got a good job? I cost thousands of dollars each year," read another.

New York City Department of Social Services

Today, ads in the same vein as the one seen on the right will pop up on subways everywhere. Their main theme: Fifty percent of teenagers do not understand the seriousness of pregnancy at such an early age. And, as you can see, they're bound to grab any viewer's immediate attention. We guess that's advertising at its core, right?

The campaign is the latest from the NYC Department of Social Services to address the issue of teen pregnancy. It will be followed with a YouTube video series later this month as well as an informational text message program for young adults. In both, the Health Department will attempt to reiterate that message.

The new ads rides off the recent controversy brewing over the city's CATCH program. This initiative (increasingly) places Plan B and birth control in the hands of public school health workers, naturally infuriating the parents of students subject to the in-school contraceptives.

But that story parallels the news that teen pregnancy has dropped more than 27 percent in New York City over the past decade. Although the numbers split drastically by borough and race, Health Commissioner Tom Farley pointed to two reasons for the overall decline: Teenagers are having less sex and using more protection.

And, now, there might be a third: that these ads will scare the living daylights of kids everywhere.

You can check out the whole collection here.

[jsurico15@gmail.com/@JSuricz]

According to the Daily News, that's the word coming from the New York City Health Department to explain a serious downward trend. In new data released yesterday, the City's youth has undergone a 27 percent drop in pregnancies over the last ten years.

The results have led Health Commissioner Tom Farley to point to his Department's efforts to provide more access to contraceptives (like condoms, Plan B and birth control) in schools - a move that hasn't exactly gone over well with some parents. However, his reasoning is not that more contraceptives directly caused less pregnancies; it's just the impression they give off to students:

"It shows that when you make condoms and contraception available to teens, they don't increase their likelihood of being sexually active. But they get the message that sex is risky," Mr. Farley said. This might explain why sexual activity in high schools has dropped by a quarter as well.

However, not all the statistics provided are reasons to celebrate.

However, an item we encountered this morning has made us revisit this age-old misnomer.

Trojan Company, best known for its condoms, is going to give away 10,000 free vibrators from two hot dog carts Wednesday and Thursday.

One of the "Pleasure Carts" is going to be parked in the Meatpacking District, on 14th Street and Tenth Avenue -- while the other will be stationed in the East Village -- on Third Avenue between 12th and 14th Streets.

The company promises to hit all of the city's "hot spots" during the giveaway.

Today, for the first time in history, women across the nation will receive contraceptives without cost

Today brings free contraception for all (as long as you're one of the millions insured and you don't work for a Catholic organization), under the Affordable Care Act. Effective today, these provisions cover most major preventive services without a co-pay.

According to data provided by Planned Parenthood, women spend nearly $600 annually on birth control. The organization says that 45 million women are already benefiting from the ACA and that these new provisions will provide 12.8 million women of reproductive age access to insurance coverage.

We spoke to Alice Berger, VP of Health Care Planning at Planned Parenthood NYC, to find out more about how these provisions will impact the women of New York City.

As you might remember, the White House's mandate that insurers cover birth control goes into effect next week, prompting many a religious conservative to develop a painful case of pantyknots, with some directly challenging the Obama Administration policy in court.

Boehner, as Talking Points Memo notes, has a "message" for his conservative colleagues: do not follow suit!

Rather, he wants them to abandon the most politically problematic issues until after the election, and even then, he seems game for taking things easy.

Shortly after Centers for Disease Control stats indicated that 37 percent of U.S. births are unintended, a Conservative Christian group is trying to block the White House Policy which makes insurers cover birth control, set to go into effect Aug. 1.

And guess what?

In 2010, 37 percent of U.S. births, the latest year for CDC stats, were ALSO unintended.

Meaning: Public health authorities have kindasortaTOTALLY failed at preventing unintended births.

So what's up?