Birth Control Access to Teens

Over exposure to sexually explicit material is becoming more of the “it” thing to do. With teens being exposed to sex on the internet, television, famous celebrities, and the social media, they are more prone to explore sex and other sexual activities. Even though we cannot watch every move that our teenagers are doing, the best thing we can do is to educate them about the risks of having unprotected sex and all the consequences that are associated with the choice to have unprotected sex. The relationship between teens and their parents can be summed up in two categories; either a great communication relationship, or a lack of communication between the teen and their parents. The teen who has a great communication relationship with their parents will feel comfortable talking to their parent about any sexual encounters and possibly getting the help they will need such as Oral Contraception Pills to avoid pregnancy. But, what about the teen that doesn’t have such a great communication relationship with their parents? These teens could be the ones that are getting pregnant which could be avoided with the correct use of Oral Contraception Pills. A suggested solution to this could be selling an FDA approved Oral Contraception Pill over the counter for easy access to the teen where she can take for herself in the privacy and comfort of her own privacy without the

As of recently, the approval of the emergency contraceptive Plan B, for the use of girls as young as fifteen years old has stirred up quite some controversy (Belluck, 2013). Those who oppose it cite the diminishing moral values that this would impose on an already increasingly secular society. These individuals believe that having access to such a powerful substance would encourage young girls to engage in sexual promiscuity without any fear of repercussion (Belluck, 2013). However, proponents of this new law argue that giving full access to fifteen year old girls would discourage them from becoming pregnant at such an early age and gives them the opportunity to make wise decisions about their bodies. Aside from the two strongly opposing sides to this dilemma, the actual nature of the dilemma stems from the ease with which these young girls would be able to access the emergency contraceptive drug. Before the new law came into place, the emergency contraceptive was only available through the prescription of a doctor and could only be accessed through a pharmacist (Aleccia, 2013). With the new law, anyone fifteen or older would be able to access and purchase the drug over-the-counter. Granting such access to girls who may at times not be fully aware of the consequences of their actions is the nature of the dilemma.

Would you want your young teens accessing birth control and medical attention without your permission or knowledge? Earlier this month, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced that the state’s teen birth rate dropped 40% between 2009 and 2013. California and Oregon are two states that have passed laws to expand access to contraceptives. In those states, you can get birth control pills straight from your pharmacy without a prescription. The changes will go into effect this October in California and in Oregon, next January. This will make it easier for women to get birth control discreetly.

The article “Birth Control for Kids?” was published in 2007 by Time Magazine, and despite being several years old it offers an excellent analysis of sex education in U.S. schools. A middle school in Portland, Maine decided to take a vote on whether it should offer birth control pills to students through the school’s health center. If passed, the vote would allow children as young as eleven-years-old access to contraceptives aside from the traditional condom. In addition, although parental consent would be needed to allow access to the healthcare center, the parents would not necessarily be informed about the nature of the health center visit. Therefore students could obtain birth control without the information ever being disclosed to parent/guardians.

Public schools are attempting to teach birth control in their curriculum, but is it encouraging more teens to start being sexually active? “Studies show that 39% of schools teach how to use a condom; 58% of schools are encouraging their kids to wait, but they urge them to use birth control if they do have sex.“(Nicole De Coursey, Jennifer Hoppe, Amy Sims, and Caroline Sorgen) Most U.S. public school districts require the education about sex in class but not enough schools do not provide abstinence teaching programs. Abstinence messages are very important, but clearly the coverage of contraceptive topics is also crucial in helping our youth prevent unplanned pregnancy and STD’s. “One-third of teachers indicated that they had to be careful about what they taught because of the possibility of a bad community reaction.”(USA Today). Birth control was taught a lot more back in the 1980’s than it is compared to now. “Six in ten of teachers

According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), teen pregnancy rates have decreased by 11 percent to those aged 15-19 years in the years 2013 to 2014. If a continuum of these rates is to be achieved, birth control should be available to teen girls without a prescription because they can prevent unintended pregnancies. Also, the staggering abortion rates could be lowered due to the use of oral contraceptives being available at any time. If condoms can be bought in stores to help guys protect themselves, birth control should be over the counter. Birth control pills should be available to teenage girls because teenage boys have availability to condoms, it would lower teen pregnancy rates, and lastly it gives young girls control over their own body.

“By 2014, the teen birth rate had fallen to an historic low of 24.2 live births per one thousand females aged fifteen–nineteen” (Birth Control 1). Alice had been feeling ill the past couple of weeks, she didn’t think anything of it until it was the second week she had been feeling ill. After school one day she went to the store and bought a home pregnancy test, when she took it, it was positive. All of the issues of telling her parents she was pregnant could have been avoided if birth control was available without parental consent. Birth control should be available to teenagers without parental consent because teenagers have a right to their privacy, it’s used for other reasons than safe sex, and not having access to it could put their health at risk.

One of the biggest debates of today is, whether or not teenagers should be given birth control. It is a very touchy subject, especially to parents. Teenagers are having sexual experiences younger and younger every day. WE should not ignore the fact of it or help control teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases or infections STD/STI.

Did you know that more than half of all teens feel uncomfortable talking to their parents about sex? Allowing teens to access birth control has always been a controversial subject for society, especially when it speaks of parents and whether they should be involved in the decision or not. Is it ethical? Does it go against various religions? Will it really make the pregnancy rate go down? Is it really the teenagers choice? Does it take away from the parents the ability to control their children? So many questions which can’t be answered unless we try it.

In order to give intelligence, programs should be looked into to inform teenage girls’ on what birth control is and what it can do. Many teens don’t even know about birth control and where to go if they were interested. If to give education before giving access to the birth control it’ll give the advantage to save money, reduce abortions, take away from poverty, and empower young minds. These programs make girls feel as if they “won’t be judged… They’ll be respected.” (Draper, 2014, para. 17). Teenagers should be able to “rely on the program” for many things they seem to be lacking help for. “Majority of Americans favor giving birth control to school-aged teenagers” (Draper, 2014, para. 22) all of the majority of all school-aged teenagers need education on birth

The age girls should have access to birth control without a parent’s permission should vary from the ages of 13 to 18. To introduce with, girls feel uncomfortable getting birth control with a parent. In the article it states, “47 percent of sexually active teenage girls said that they would stop accessing...if they couldn't get contraceptives without first telling their parents.” (Preventing Teenagers from Getting Contraceptives With No Parent). In other words, a lot of teenage girls are uncomfortable with talking about sexual activity with their parents, it has been clearly tested. Additionally, some parents do not want to talk about birth control in general. When the girls are talking to their parents about birth control “it tends not to

Teenage girls should be allowed to get birth control without their parent’s consent because it would reduce teen pregnancy. The lack of contraception increases chances of unplanned pregnancy. On average, eight out of every 100 fertile women will become pregnant after having one episode of unprotected vaginal intercourse during the second or third week of their menstrual cycle (Alic, 2006). Although the rate of teen pregnancy in the United States has declined, it is still the highest of

Birth control is defined as the act of preventing pregnancy. It comes in many forms and has been around since ancient times, only, it wasn’t until 1960, when women were given greater control over their body when the first birth control pill was approved by the US Food & Drug Administration to be sold. Even though birth control is a proven method for preventing sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy, some parents struggle with moral and ethical implications surrounding the issue. All may sound well, but there has been controversy over whether or not teens should have access to not just birth control, but more specifically, the contraceptive oral pill. Or do teen-agers have the right to obtain birth control without the knowledge - and possible disapproval - of their parents? Furthermore, with a high birth rate in a rapidly growing population, social problems will lead to social crises and explosion. Birth control not only gives teen girls the right to their own body, but has many benefits regarding pregnancy prevention and their health.

In today’s generation one of the biggest issues in the teenage population is that it is more common for them to start having intercourse at a young age. That could lead to an unplanned pregnancy. Most teens would prefer to be on birth control but some parents might not allow them to be and because they are minors they need the consent from a legal guardian. Therefore, teens should be allowed to access birth control without parents consent due to teens being embarrassed to ask their parents, having responsibility and birth control also helping with internal issues.

Adolescent pregnancy is defined as pregnancy in girls age nineteen or younger. There are different risk factors for adolescent pregnancy. Besides being young, some of them include: poor school performance and not graduating college, or in most cases high school, lower socio economic status and not being able to take care of themselves let alone another person, and older male partners who do not usually want to be involved in their child’s life, which ends up leaving parents to raise their children on their own. “The reason why teenage pregnancy is an important public health issue is because integrated action across several sectors is needed to help young women avoid unwanted pregnancy and to deal with the consequences of the pregnancy…” (Too Much Too Young? Teenage Pregnancy is a Public Health, Not a Clinical, Problem). Teen pregnancy is also a public health problem because there is only so much that can be done to prevent it from occurring. There is only the complexity of teaching sexual health to teenagers, along with the organization of maternity services to those mothers who decide to carry out their pregnancies the full term, or services for those who decide they want to terminate their pregnancies. Also, public health problem solving includes using surveillance of interventions. Without accurate and appropriate data, public health problems become problematic. Another public health prevention is giving out free or cheap condoms around schools or communities, although