October 21, 2007
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Do you think middle schoolers should have free access to birth control?
Access should be a no brainer. Of course they should have access. If it is safe and healthy and carefully administered, and it has been demonstrated that the phenomenon of pregnancy in middle school is large enough that there is a need, then sure they should have access. Parental notification is a much more difficult and tricky matter. Fortunately that wasn’t asked so I can chicken out and not bother to answer it.
I don’t get the arguments against access.
One argument people are making is that because children aren’t capable of making informed rational decisions we should not give them access to birth control. I don’t get that argument at all. If you make birth control not accessable to them aren’t you making it harder or impossible for them to make an informed rational decision? Aren’t you in fact removing the very possibility of making a particular choice in such twisted hope that they will act in accordance with your expectations rather than in accordance with your fears? What happens when they then act in accordance with your fears anyway? Will you blame them for being so foolish or blame your own damn selves for not even giving them the means to make a better decision?
The other argument is that this availability of the birth control serves as tacit approval and encouragement of sexual activity. People spout on about it making a value judgement or some such nonsense I can’t even comprehend. All we’re talking about is access right? We aren’t talking about going down the halls shoving pills and condoms into childrens hands and telling them to go get laid. Access does *not* in any way implicitly imply approval or encouragement. It is not at all contradictory to have birth control accessible and have children be taught abstinence. Both can exist. (Though to be perfectly honest, I never quite understood what it meant to ‘teach’ abstinence anyway. Isn’t that like a one sentence lesson? Anyway, if such a thing exists, it can certainly coexist with birth control access)
So what you must be saying is that word will sort of get around the block in middle schools. Kids who might have been too afraid of stds and underage childbirth will refrain from having sex when they can’t get a hold of the tools to prevent those occurrences but if they find out that they can just go to the nurse’s office and ask for the tools they need to make it easier on them they’ll consider it a worthwhile risk. The only thing keeping them back is the fear. Not immaturity. Not unawareness. Just fear. Once we alleviate that fear the floodgates will open and it will be armageddon!
But weren’t we just saying that kids will be too stupid to make rational decisions? Why then do you presuppose that the fear will keep them away from illicit activities in the absence of access? Do you really think it will? If it does, then why is the number of underage pregancies increasing and the average age decreasing nationwide when we *aren’t* providing access to birth control to middle school aged children in most places? Could it be that there are other influences much more salient to the choices of the teenage mind than the availability of birth control?
If we really are deeply concerned about the frequency of underage sex we’ll focus our attention on things that actually influence our children’s choices (can we say “popular culture”?), not on something that actually helps them to make better choices. Not on something that improves the quality of lives that might otherwise have been made far more difficult. Not on something that helps *reduce* the problem of underage pregnancy.
Maybe rather than trying to control our children through a tyranny of fear, we’ll try and educate them better about the nature of the world in which they live in now, about the choices that they face now and make sure they are aware of the opportunities available to them to make better choices.
The reality is what it actually is. And you have to prepare for a future that is coming whether we want it to or not. Children have to grow up faster now and they’re going to have to grow up faster still in the near future. That’s just the truth of it. We can’t shelter them. We can only try to adapt to the changes as much as possible and educate our children to the best of our ability to be prepared for this incomprehensible new future they are going to soon have to face.
Clinging to the past doesn’t help anybody. Wishful thinking doesn’t make anybody’s actual lives any better. So you do the analysis and make the decisions that actually help real people to live better lives. This seems to me to be one such decision. So let it happen and stop being so afraid. Let the future work itself out.
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Comments (2)
I agree with educating our children about safe sex practices. What I don’t agree with is a middle school providing birth control without the parent’s knowledge. It is insane that a child can get birth control without parental consent, but they need it to get their ears pierced. We have totally lost perspective as a society.
you’ve hit the heart of the problem when you suggested that the solution is educating our children to make the right choices rather than inhibiting them through fear. if i understood you directly, you’re advocating for attacking the problem directly rather than dealing with damage control?
however, i’m a bit paternalistic in nature when it comes to dealing with children and teenagers. i understand that age is an arbitrary measurement of an individual’s maturity. as a whole, i also feel that middle-schoolers are not capable of making rational decisions. i see this population as kids who still need their parents to pack their lunches and be reminded to do their homework.
if raised and taught properly, i have the highest faith that middle-schoolers would make the right decision when given the opportunity. however, parenting skills are lacking nowadays. it is, therefore, a necessary evil that the choice for middle-schoolers do not have access to birth control all together.
perhaps the objections to this issue is reflective of society’s fear of its lack of parental skills. it is not the kids who cannot make inform decisions. it is the parents who cannot teach their kids to.