My 13-year-old doesn't need ad about 'unprotected sex'

It's not easy to find decent, entertaining television programs I can watch with my family. My kids, ages 13 and 11, have outgrown most animated movies, and sadly, most programs aimed at older audiences are filled with vulgar language, sex scenes, or other inappropriate content. So the night before Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the hilarious Christmas movie "Elf," which was playing on Freeform, the Disney-owned cable network that used to be "ABC Family."

Just as I began to settle into a contented, digital-media-induced state of relaxation, I was jolted into fully-alert outrage by a commercial that clearly included my 13-year-old daughter and her unsuspecting peers within its target market. Its message was a bull in a china shop – barging, uninvited, into the sacred ground of some of the most delicate, private and important conversations mothers can have with their daughters.

It was a commercial for "Plan B One-Step," the drug that promises girls the ability to avoid pregnancy after engaging in unprotected sex.

See Plan B commercial:

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This promise, once received, is bound to factor into the decision-making processes of girls who are considering what physical boundaries they will set – or cross – in their relationships with boys. We already know that ultimately, these life-altering decisions will be made by teenage brains that are not even finished developing the physiological capability of making good decisions. But this Plan B commercial confounded the problem considerably, providing only the scrap of information that promotes the product and serves the drug company's bottom line.

It mentioned nothing of the many dangers – physical, emotional, or spiritual – that accompany the "unprotected sex" it references. Rather, the implication is that this product simply resolves the reasons girls might think twice about having sex outside the covenant of marriage.

Now consider the commercials you see for other drugs. At least half of each one seems to consist of a detailed description of every possible risk and danger the consumer needs to know about. Comparing the Plan B ad with commercials for drugs treating ulcers or skin conditions, the average teenager would conclude that there are more reasons to worry about cures for her rosacea than about entering the world of unmarried, unprotected sex.

In our society's near-obsession with healthy living, this commercial is a giant leap in the wrong direction. We emphasize exercise. We educate kids about proper nutrition. We teach them the many harms of drug abuse. We equip them to confront bullying. We have banned commercials for cigarettes.

Now the same company that captured our little girls' hearts with "Cinderella" and "Frozen" is profiting from a company telling them that unprotected sex can be OK, after all.

I know there are some who think of "Plan B One-Step" as a positive development in the health department, because it can preclude an unwanted pregnancy that might otherwise throw a girl's life off the expected course. But whether you think the availability of the drug is a good thing or a bad thing, surely we all can agree that the decision of unmarried teens to engage in sexual activity is such a significant, important and private one – one with such profound, lifelong consequences – that it should not be the subject of a profit-motivated commercial advertisement aired during a family television program.

As consumers, we should demand that networks competing for our families' attention either say "no" to advertising dollars from the makers of products like this, or at least shift these commercials into programming whose audiences won't be so jarred by the messaging.

Mothers: Let's make sure that part of our response to this latest assault on our families is to redouble our efforts to build strong, authentic relationships of trust with our daughters. The messaging of "Plan B" will factor into their decision-making, but let it be relegated to the weight of a feather on the side of the scale that says "just do it," while our years of nurturing them in truth and love is a ton of bricks on the side that says "do what is right."

But let's not stop there. If you believe, as I do, that commercials discussing "solutions" for "unprotected sex" don't belong in the middle of movies about elves during prime time, contact Disney-ABC Television Company, the owner of the Freeform channel, and let them know. Let's force the makers of Plan B to find a "Plan B" for their product. Because peddling the mirage of consequence-free sex to our daughters during a family movie is a plan that's beyond the pale.