This week in Portland, Maine, school officials voted to make birth control pills available to students at King Middle School. This was brought upon by some pregnancies of some middle school girls. In the past four years, there were 17 reported pregnancies.
In order to use the health center at the school that would supply the pills, a parent must consent to their child to use the center (because middle school-ers are underage), but any treatment in the health center remains confidential because of state law.
Some people were against the health center providing birth control pills for religious reasons. But others are horrified at the thought of birth control pills even being available for 11-13 year olds, and are concerned that this will only encourage the kids to have sex.
However, Richard Veilleux, who is the executive director or the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care, says that this health center will help the kids who are already engaging in sexual activity.
Obviously, there are many sides to this argument: being for or against having birth control pills at a middle school health center. Of course, many parents are concerned about the availability of birth control pills at their child's school. However, providing these pills will help those who are already having sex. Also, if this new policy is effective, will it spread throughout middle schools in the US? And, since the federal government is involved in abortion currently, will it become involved in this and make it a legal matter? But the main concern and question of many is this: will providing birth control pills encourage these young, pre-teens to engage in sexual activity, or will it benefit the children more?
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This event reveals the change in American society over the generations. Now, kids, who are just reaching puberty, are getting pregnant? That kind of information is quite disturbing because it shows that children are beginning to engage in sexual activity at an extremely young age. This is different from a few generations ago when kids engaged in sexual activity in their late teens. All this proves that society is changing, that people are beginning to act differently than before, which signals potential changes in many other aspects as well.
Preventing a problem is better than finding a solution.
And why not? Sex is not gross, it is only natural. In the olden days, girls did have babies when they were as young as these girls are in middle school. If it was not meant to be, then girls would not be able to get pregnant at that age, but they can. And although it is not the societal norm now to have babies at such a young age, the girls who choose to do so should not be shunned. And if they want to practice safe sex, then it should be available to them.
There is a definite culture change in today's youth, and it is obviously apparent, and this event just certifies it. I hear stories from this year's Freshmen class about being tempted by alcohol, drugs and sex. I remember while in middle school I barely had any idea about those things. Yes sex is natural and it happens, but I think any intelligent girl or boy know what their limits are. Eleven, twelve and thirteen year-olds should not be exposed to sex. First of all, the only sexual education they've received has been in school where you solely learn the science of it all. Second of all, most of them haven't even gone through puberty yet.
Providing birth control DOES NOT encourage kids encourage kids to have sex. The people who feel birth control doesn't belong in middle schools for religious reasons live in an unrealistic idealistic world. Not providing birth control does not stop kids from having sex, because if they want to have sex, they will. Pretending that underage sex does not occur is ignorant. Providing aid for sexual active individuals is beneficial because keeping teen pregnancies at a minimum will do everyone good.
Middle School seems awfully young to me... however, most girls that age have gone through puberty, as well as many boys. Better nutrition seems to have accelerated the physical maturation process by a factor of years in just the past half-century. You can look it up.
Now, early physical maturation does not automatically come with the requisite emotional maturation, so one can arguably make a better case for waiting than ever before, solely based on the best interest of the kids in question irrespective of the consequences of pregnancy, which are generally negative for teens of any age.
At the same time, I don't think you can base public policy on expecting people to wait a decade between puberty and sexual activity, even if idealists have their feathers ruffled by the uncomfortable reality imposed by these social and biological timetables getting so out of sync.
Fwiw in Maryland in the early 80s, sex ed started in 5th grade. (I got an F.)
Middle school birth control clinics -- really??
Btw I'm pretty sure I visited the MS school in question when I first started exploring teaching at Bowdoin. And I happen to be in some 1980s era sex ed film starring the then Surgeon-General Dr. Everett Koop shot in a classroom at my private, all boys, Republican to the core school. AIDS was scaring the &^%$ out of people at the time, so some of the natural antipathy to these subjects had to take a back seat. So, I do feel some personal connection to the story even though I'm ambivalent about whether this is such a hot idea in the first place.
I'm going to have to disagree and say that by providing birth control pills middle schools are encouraging sex to their students. Although their bodies may be physically ready, they certainly aren't mature enough to handle this type of thing. The thought of their even being this type of center at a middle school is slightly frightening.
Might be the most disgusting post so far. Lets see, I think that some parents need to do a better job parenting, not that a school needs to provide birth control to 11 year olds. Sheeshkers! Have birth control companies even conducted studies on what could happen to such young women if they take them? The Zaz thing even has side-effects for grown women, can you imagine a 14 year old having to go to the hospital for stuff relating to "you know what"? But then again I guess it is not very good if they are going in the back of an ambulance 9 months pregnant.
I think birth control for girls in middle school is premature, but if they are having sex then it seems like a necessary safety precaution. I would prefer that these kids have access to birth control than to end up pregnant or with an STD. Still, because of the parental consent, I don't think this will be all that beneficial. Another problem is most kids at this age don't know very much about sex, so it seems unlikely that many of them will be worried about safety. Maybe the resources would be better spent teaching these kids more sex ed, and telling them about places like Planned Parenthood. That way, the girls who need the birth control would know where they could go, but at the same time, the parents who have religious reasons for not opposing this, would not have to feel uncomfortable.
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