Middle School Birth Control

I can see how this school in Maine that is "giving birth contol pills to 11-year old girls without requiring parental consent" is alarming to many people. I read an article from Bill O'Reilly on it. Big surprise, he hates it. But even NPR had a story today (that I haven't listened to yet - not sure which show it was) basically asking "is this really okay for them to do?"

I think it is really important for girls of all ages to have access to birth control and good information about sex education. That is not to say that I want my daughter to be having sex at eleven years old, but if she were to be doing it, I'd MUCH rather she was on the pill than have her get pregnant.

The thing that really gets me about this is that the right will not allow these girls to get birth control pills (they would probably not even want the boys with condoms), and then if the kids get pregnant, they won't let them get an abortion (they say give it up for adoption - I have two kids, and I don't know how anyone could carry a baby for nine months and then just give it up for adoption - you become quite attached to that future baby). In fact, they are probably the first ones to provide judgement and unsupport to pregnant teens (and pre-teens in this case). On top of all this, they are the ones against sex education in the classroom (although even if I was going to send my kids to school, I still wouldn't rely on the sex ed they provide in there.)

Think about it this way. If a kid is having sex at eleven years old, there might be some sort of a deeper problem there. Could be anything from run-of-the-mill low self esteem all the way up to abuse. But something isn't right, and there's a good chance there's a parental rift involved there. So to require parental consent is just like putting up a big wall, and to require it would be to essentially prevent practically all of its intended utility (which I'm assuming is to reduce unwanted teen pregnancies.)

There's nothing wrong with sex. It is totally natural. Anyone who's ever had it can tell you that it is enjoyable, and they probably thought about it a lot before they had it for the first time, and possibly even more after they had it for the first time. Again, not that I want my eleven year old doing it necessarily, but at the same time, I don't think we should be viewing it in a shameful way that it seems to be protrayed most of the time.

If you want to act like there's no sex, and kids don't want to have it, then you do that on your own turf, but don't prevent my kid from getting essential tools for dealing with real life consequences of sex in a mature way.