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I went to private christian school and we had sex ed in 3rd grade (7 yrs old) which taught the basics on how babies were made, and a better one in 8th grade(13 yrs old) which talked about std's and all that stuff. In HS we also had a satanic-ed on how bad ozzy was and the evils of drugs.
LOL! At 7 anything that would have me forming images of my mom and dad having sex would have been too much for me! I was a late bloomer!
I have not read all 4 pages, but I feel that teenagers SHOULD be able to see a doctor and get Birth Control without their parents being notified. This is why:
1. My friends 15 year old just had a baby.
2. I would want my child protected....even if she didn't feel comfortable coming to me.
I would want to know and I hope that my daughters come to me, but ultimately I want them protected. I went to the Health Department when I was 20 for B.C. They talked a lot about protection/risks, ect BEFORE they would prescribe anything. Doctors offices would do the same (at least any I have ever been to).
How can they give them birth-control pills? In my son's high-school they won't even give you an ASPIRIN.
Check this out: Maine middle school to offer birth control - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/18/middleschool.contraception.ap/ - broken link)
Okay, how old are we talking here? And I guess even age is subjective, but I'd damn sure have more of a problem with my ten year old getting BC than my 16 year old.
(I have no kids, btw, but I was on BC by the time I was...young, without my mom's knowledge til years later, thank YOU Planned Parenthood.)
That said, if my ten year old were having sex (god forbid), I'd rather them be educated about the pill and on it, even without my knowledge. Kids are going to have sex (if they want to) with or without your consent or knowledge, I know that firsthand, and I'm not the only one. I'd rather have a ten year old on birth control than a pregnant ten year old, I'll tell you that much.
I don't encourage anyone young having sex, but if they DO make that decision, I think they should have access to contraceptives. It doesn't make their parents bad parents, it doesn't make the kid a bad kid...it all just happens, whether or not you "permit" it. My parents were (and are) the greatest parents you could ask for, but I still lost my virginity at a young age, and without the pill to back me up. I had no place to go for it until a few years later, and that was after my first pregnancy scare.
I wouldn't want to burden my 10 year old with such adult things or end her innocent girlhood.
By the time they are 10, most girls now days are having periods or know one of their friends who are (we had 2 in 3rd grade 8 years old who started at school). If they are having a period they should have BASIC information about reproduction. Maybe not "If you put this here and do this you will get pregnant", but something more along the lines of "If you have sex, you can get pregnant because you are becoming a grown up girl and it is possible." They need to have an idea of things like kissing don't make you pregnant, babies don't come out of your belly button, you CAN get pregnant the first time you have sex, I think you get my drift. To be honest, in Oklahoma if you are under 14 or so when you are delivering a baby the hospital notifies Child Welfare. It is unusual for a child under 14 to WILLINGLY be sexually active, according to what I was told when I did my rotation in OB. According to studies I found, in 2005, 22% of 9th Graders were sexually active. That is 15 year olds. That is scary. Then we have the Band trip that my 16 year old sister went on and my parents finally decided to go last year. They went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a Band Contest. The TEACHER reserved the rooms at the lodge they stayed at, and put all the kids on one floor and the parents on a different floor. My mom was LIVID. Can you say, Lets Encourage it????
Innocence aside, when they start to get to the pre-teens they need some beginning information.
I have copied and pasted some of the links I placed in my daughter's folder on my computer. She can look at them at anytime she chooses. This is besides the information I have discussed with her at 16 she needs to know and if she don't want to ask me, I want her to have ACCURATE information.
This one is the anatomy and functions of the penis..don't look if you don't wanna see. BTW if you want to take this link to the one about being circumcised...it applies. Anatomy of the Penis and Mechanics of Intercourse
If a 16 y/o cannot get married without her parents permission, why should they be allowed to get prescription medication w/out their parents permission or knowledge?
And, putting the debate about a 16 y/o right to privacy aside for the moment, ANYTIME a child uses the health insurance provided by and paid for by the PARENTS, the parents should be notified. Children aren't allowed to use your credit cards w/out permission. Why should health insurance, which could generate a bill, be any different?
16 y/o minors should not be prescribed ANY meds w/out the parents knowledge.
If they are prescribed pain killers or muscle relaxants that make them too drowsy to drive, and they get in an accident, the parents can be sued and held liable for it, with devastating financial consequences for the parent.
and like 925 said above, what if the kid's in an accident and they need to know what meds the kid is on?
If you are going to let them get BC, you'd have to let them get anything they could convince a DR to write an RX for which would open a can of worms.
IMO, if you are going to allow minor children the right to make medical decisions w/out their parents/guardians, then we need to look at the voting age, the drinking age, and what age kids live on their own......
No. Parents should have heavy duty discussions with their children about sex. But there is no way a parent can guarantee that there child won't have sex. My parents tried this, as have countless of other parents. Sarah Palin is a good example of this. If a parent sends a very strong message that premarital sex is unacceptable, a child will be anxious and afraid to tell the parent that they are sexually active and will not ask their parent for assistance with obtaining birth control. The teen will assume that the parent will freak out and say "NO!". But once a teen has sex once, you can bet they'll have it again and again and again. And they should be protected and they should not need their parents blessing for that protection. I'm in my 40's now, but am very thankful that I did not have to ask my parents to get me birth control. They would have said no. I would have had sex anyway and may have possibly gotten pregnant and that would have really rocked their worlds. And that was before the AIDS scare of today. In my family, NO ONE has kids out of wedlock so the pressure is on to not be the one to humiliate the family with what my upbringing considers to be a tragic thing. But I doubt any of my cousins were virgins when they married. The solution - birth control - readily available and affordable for teens.
If a 16 y/o cannot get married without her parents permission, why should they be allowed to get prescription medication w/out their parents permission or knowledge?
And, putting the debate about a 16 y/o right to privacy aside for the moment, ANYTIME a child uses the health insurance provided by and paid for by the PARENTS, the parents should be notified. Children aren't allowed to use your credit cards w/out permission. Why should health insurance, which could generate a bill, be any different?
16 y/o minors should not be prescribed ANY meds w/out the parents knowledge.
If they are prescribed pain killers or muscle relaxants that make them too drowsy to drive, and they get in an accident, the parents can be sued and held liable for it, with devastating financial consequences for the parent.
and like 925 said above, what if the kid's in an accident and they need to know what meds the kid is on?
If you are going to let them get BC, you'd have to let them get anything they could convince a DR to write an RX for which would open a can of worms.
IMO, if you are going to allow minor children the right to make medical decisions w/out their parents/guardians, then we need to look at the voting age, the drinking age, and what age kids live on their own......
Wow! I hadn't thought of any of that. Great post. Rep coming.
Location: In my own little corner... sittin' in Jax FL
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Ok. I've been thinking about this quite a bit since this first posted here. And I actually commented on this about a year ago. It made national news as an AP poll response to the Maine story (alluded to above) and my comments were not given in their entirety. I received phone calls AT MY HOME from strangers because of it. I feel strongly on this topic. And though I say that parents should be notified, I know that it is not going to ever be 100% fool-proof. That is me speaking as a parent about my children.
Here is what I wrote in response to the MANY MANY MANY posts out there regarding this topic.
Quote:
Obviously, the comment printed in the article was not the entire interview/conversation that the reporter and I engaged in.
I believe that abstinence is the best choice. However, abstinence education does not teach what happens when a teen responds to the raging hormones or peer pressure or even a wily partner. Sometimes things happen even with children brought up with strong moral &/or religious foundations.
Then you have the other side of the coin to consider, too. What about those children who's parents are not actively involved in their child's moral upbringing? While I don't think it is the school's responsibility to teach morals exclusively, children are in school for many hours every day. There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, with providing examples of moral behavior. Otherwise the only influence they may be exposed to is false images of morality as portrayed by the entertainment industry.
One of the things that I said in the interview was that in the school in Maine, which sparked the most recent controversy on this topic, the parents must give permission for the child to access the clinic. The parents are also given the opportunity for the child not to receive birth control from the clinic. There are some safeguards in place. Yes, there will be some children that are 'wise' enough to know how to get around the system. In those cases, I feel strongly that if the child is probably engaging in sexual activity and is cognizant enough of the possible results of that activity to ask for birth control.... give it to them by all means!
Myself, I am working on the relationships between myself and my three young daughters. Instilling self-worth, good moral upbringing, trust in their ability to make decisions and trust in me to listen to them when they have questions or problems are integral parts of the relationship that I hope to achieve with them. I was not promiscuous in school by any stretch of the imagination. However, I know plenty that were or professed to be so inclined. Some were from good families but the parents seemed to be oblivious to the child's actions or, perhaps, chose to ignore them. Some were truly promiscuous and others were just 'all talk'.
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That is scary. Then we have the Band trip that my 16 year old sister went on and my parents finally decided to go last year. They went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a Band Contest. The TEACHER reserved the rooms at the lodge they stayed at, and put all the kids on one floor and the parents on a different floor. My mom was LIVID. Can you say, Lets Encourage it????
