Birth Control for pre-teens?
Kids at King Middle School in Portland Maine haveto be feeling pretty darn good about themselves. The school’s so concerned about their health and welfare that they are passing out birth control for those that feel the urge. I’m just totally stumped by this one. We’re talking 12-14 year olds. For the most part, I don’t think most 12 to 14 year olds really think about having sex that much at that point. Those that do, well, usually don’t do it AT school. In other words, it’s not a school function or responsibility. By making sure they’re well protected if they decide to, the school is condoning the act whether they intend to or not. By making access to birth control fairly easy and discreet, they can hide it from their parents that much easier and feel that much more confident about giving it a go. So, the effect of what King Middle School is doing is encouraging sex at a time when they should be educating kids on the consequences. Plus, there are more consequences of having sex than simply popping out a kid. Will the school/health department take care of those consequences as well? If one of their kids does get pregnant by not appropriately using the stuff the school gave them, can she sue the school for support? I just think this opens a whole can of worms the school’s not thinking about.
Scrappleface of course skewers the topic appropriately by pointing out another angle I hadn’t thought of. By handing out birth control at taxpayer’s expense, the school is showing preference of heterosexual activity over any other form of sexual activity. How does this make the gay 12 year olds feel? I see a sexual orientation discrimination lawsuit over this. In order to counter that, what will the school hand out to the 12 year old lesbians and gays?
This is a road the schools should not be going down. The road they should be going down is encouraging the kids to prosecute whoever they are having sex with. It is after all, illegal at that age.
