Genesis Health Systems

Should middle school health clinics provide birth control pills to students?

The health clinic at a Maine middle school caused an uproar by planning to prescribe and distribute the birth control pill to students who request it. What do you think?

Public Comments

1. gsdfg
2. If they're going to do it, they're going to do it. Maybe birth control pills would be safer.
3. NO WAY!!!! Parents should rebel!!!
4. no, there would be too much illegal passing of the meds. they can hand out condoms though. if youre intrested in birth control, and you are under 18 talk to your parents. :)
5. Regardless how much sex education you give teens if they are going to have sex they will regardless. I think it is a good idea to help the number of pregnancies go down but the schools and well as parents need to educate them more on abstinence and that the pill doesn't protect against STD's and is not 100% accurate.
6. I think it should be against the law, how can a child recieve presciption medication w/o the a parent(s) consent. They are still minors
7. From request, yes, from forcing, no.
8. It's the lesser of 2 evils, children really shouldn't be playing adult games, but as they are way too young to live with the consequences it's better for then to make sure they don't get pregnant. Babies really should not have babies. Condoms would be a safer option as they also protect against STDs but compliance is generally lower and girls this young are less able to negotiate condom use with prospective sexual partners. In a perfect world children would talk to their parents about this, would wait until they were older and we wouldn't have this problem. Sadly the children who have sex at an early age are often from dysfunctional families and have little support at home.
9. I know that there are some middle school students in Maine with tragic family lives, commonly including parental neglect and abuse. They are already at risk in more ways than I can name (I've known some of those children), and telling them to keep their legs crossed just isn't going to work. If that's what it takes in these drastic cases to keep motherhood off their list of problems, I'm for it. It's a drastic solution to a drastic problem. Only a very few children are candidates for this kind of help - but it really can help those few. "Those who request it" is the phrase that drives some people over the top, but I don't know any better way to get the help to the children who need it.
10. Is the middle school situated in Red light area If yes then my reply is yes.