Birth Control Pills in Middle Schools
In 1960 the first birth control pill was approved by the FDA. It was widely known in the United States to help prevent woman from getting pregnant, decreasing acne and stabilizing hormones. For years now birth control has been associated with the lower rates of births even though it is not one hundred percent effective. There are a lot of woman who take birth control pills to help prevent them from getting unwanted pregnancies, and there are a lot of woman who love birth control pills. However, there has been some debate on whether or not birth control pills should be offered in middle schools to students. Some of the arguments associated with this debate are should students be able to get the birth control pills without the parents’ consent, birth control pills can lower the rate of teen pregnancies and abortions, and will the birth control pills raise the risk of middle school students sexual activity.
Over the years fewer teens are becoming pregnant and the increase in birth control pills is what is being associated with these lower rates of pregnancies. However, there are still those young girls who are becoming pregnant due to the lake of access of birth control pills for the younger girls. Now day’s children as early as eleven are engaging in sexual intercourse. Several pre-teens reported having intercourse and "of those who reported intercourse, 36 percent were age 11 or younger at first sex, 27 percent were 12, 28 percent were 13, and 9 percent were 14 or older" (Jones). Not only are they having sex at such a young age but “43 percent of sexually experienced participants reported multiple sex partners" (Jones) These statistics are part of the reason as to why middle schools should start offering birth control to their students. There are those who believe that the best way to prevent teen pregnancies is by teaching abstinence but in reality if there are students who want to have sex they are going to have sex no matter what they are taught. If all we did was teach them about abstinence then that will only make these students try and hide it from everyone therefore creating a high risk of them becoming pregnant because they will have no form of birth control. Birth control pills will help lower the risk of pre-teen and teen pregnancies. Girls can begin their periods as early as nine years old, and if they start having sex at eleven it will raise the risk of them becoming a teen mom. This is why it is important to offer birth control in middle schools to help prevent these pre-teens from getting pregnant.
There are some people who believe that by offering birth control pills to middle school students it will increase sexual behavior because they believe that it will encourage students to have sex. They believe “it makes students who have not yet even given a thought to the opposite sex much more aware of the idea” (Topolewski). According to Topoleqski even “though no form of birth control completely guards against pregnancy or STDs, children may get the idea that by using contraception, they are immune to any negative consequences of sex.” Although this may be true a way to prevent this would be to create classes and programs for the students to help inform them of all the consequences. These classes and programs can provide all the information that a student will need to know about sex and birth control, the good and the bad things about it. By allowing students to be in these classes it will no longer leave students confused when they are around those who are engaging in sexual intercourse. There are those who prey on the ones who know nothing about sex and this class will help those naïve students know when someone is lying to them.
When it comes to birth control in middle schools there are some who are concerned with parents not being able to give their consent to their child receiving birth control. They believe that if parents have no consent then that will be