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The New York City Department of Education is making the morning-after-pill available to high school girls at 13 public schools.

And the DOE says girls as young as 14 will be able to get the Plan B emergency contraception without parental consent.

Plan B emergency contraception and other "Morning After" pills, can be used to prevent unwanted pregnancies up to five days after having unprotected sex. The pills have been tested as safe and is made of one of the hormones made by a woman's body - progestin. Another type (ella) blocks the body's own progestin.

Both types of emergency contraception work by keeping a woman's ovaries from releasing eggs (ovulation). Pregnancy cannot happen if there is no egg to join with sperm. As a consequence, morning after pills are not for every day birth control use and are not abortion pills. They are an added layer of protection against unwanted pregnancies.

Parents have been notified about the CATCH pilot program and how their daughters can opt out of it.

According to their website, CATCH stands for a Coordinated Approach To Child Health and is an evidence-based, coordinated school health program designed to promote physical activity, healthy food choices and the prevention of tobacco use in children.

The CATCH Programs cover kids from preschool through 8th grade and has been implemented in thousands of schools and after-school organizations across America and Canada.

CATCH is a program which has partnerships involved in health and fitness foundations and service providers. One of whom is the Jared Foundation, the Subway sandwich Jared. This new program will take CATCH in a new direction and help address other health issues of young people.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says she supports the program because high school students are sexually active and getting pregnant.

The city says about 7,000 girls get pregnant by the time they reach the age of 17. It says more than half choose to get an abortion.

NYC schools already distribute free condoms to students and most parents would agree that they would rather their daughters bring home homework rather than a newborn.