BlogHer - Birth Control Pills for Sixth Graders? - Comments

not that this should come as a surprise:)

Logan Levkoff — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:32:57 -0500

Full disclosure - I am one of those people whose character has been called into question since this issue arose last week. That being said, I stand by my support of this proposal wholeheartedly. Not because middle schoolers should be having sex, not because the birth control pill protects women from everything (because it doesn't), and not because I think that parents should be removed from their children's lives/well being. No, I believe in this because for whatever reason, there are pre-adolescents experimenting with sex, and we cannot sacrifice them because we are squeamish about sexuality. Ideally, parents pass the message of positive sexuality, health, responsibility, and how to determine sexual "readiness" to their children. But in the case of this particular population of students, many of them didn't have financial and emotional access to information and support. And that is why we need to protect them. And more importantly, that's why we need to talk to our children honestly about sex.

Logan Levkoff, M.S.
Author, Third Base Ain't What it Used to Be: What Your Kids are Learning About Sex Today - and How to Teach Them to Become Sexually Healthy Adults
www.thirdbase.typepad.com

It SO happens

christinemoers — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:25:32 -0500

My niece was put on birth control pills when she was 12 ... by her step-mom ... who is 19 and has three kids with her 33 year-old-husband (yeah ... you do the math!!). Sadly, no adult in that home is doing anything to break the cycle. You've got a teenager being parented by a teenager.

I think those are the realities. Personally, I would FREAK OUT if my kids could receive medication without my consent or knowledge. My kids are already on meds, and it is frightening to think that they could be adding to the mix without myself or their doctor knowing.

Yet, I understand making it available to parents who are saying, "We don't care - we just don't want her pregnant - and we can't afford to pay for it." They exist. Sadly, there are lots of them.

Granted, what I WOULD like to see is mandatory counseling, not just school nurses being pill factories.

Ugh. There's just no good answer, is there??

Christine

www.christinemoers.blogspot.com

OH MY!!

moddivorce — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:53:53 -0500

11 years old is so young! I agree with Sassymonkey - sex ed? Real sex ed? How about special self esteem and counseling classes for these girls? The real question is "why are these girls having sex and not saying no?" It's just so tragic. And, how are these children going to remember to take birth control pills? Not to mention the havoc the hormones might have on their young, growing bodies.

I'm not opposed to the birth control pills being available but I think there are bigger risks than pregnancy that aren't being addressed - like HIV, Hepatitis, Herpes... ikes! If they're going to hand out birth control pills they should also hand out condoms and have a serious class, with graphic pictures of the associated risks! Poor girls. I wish they'd wait.

Helene
http://themodernwomansdivorceguide.com/blog

Sex ed?

sassymonkey — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:07:17 -0500

Are all these kids getting the benefit of sex ed too? And I'm not talking about abstinence programs but programs that talk about STIs and safer sex. Yes, a girl getting pregnant at 12 is scary. But a middle school with a Chlamydia outbreak is just as scary (maybe I've watched too much Degrassi???).

Personally I've seen too many teenage girls trying to raise babies while they are still kids themselves. I'm all for them having as much education and options as possible. The word there is OPTIONS people. No one is forcing the pill down their throats. No one is mandating that all the girls be on the pill. I fail to see what is wrong with them having options. It's not about making it easy for kids to have sex - it's about making it easier for them to have SAFER sex.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

But WHY are more sixth graders getting pregnant?

Catherine Morgan — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:54:52 -0500

I think this issue needs to be looked at a little more closely. Giving out birth control to eleven year old girls is just a band-aide, if you need to use the band-aide so be it...but take a deeper look at why this is happening. An eleven year old girl may be able to physically get pregnant, but why is she having sex?

Eleven year old girls are very easily manipulated. So my question is...Are older boys (maybe even men), controlling and/or forcing eleven year old girls to have sex?...Or are eleven year old girls just falling head over heals in love and wanting to consummate the relationship?

We allow elementary schools to talk about "good touching" and "bad touching". But once the kids are in junior high, are we addressing acceptable vs not acceptable behaviors with these kids? I'm just wondering how many of the pregnant girls actually really "wanted" to be having sex in the first place?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and CatherineBlogs.com

I don't abdicate my parental

Busy Mom — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:17:43 -0500

I don't abdicate my parental responsibilities to the government, I abdicate my parental responsibilities to the Catholic Church.

Not sure what drugs they get with lunch there. It might interfere with the statue worshiping, though.

Busy Mom Blog

Bad Idea. If a 6th grader

Terri987 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:47:33 -0500

Bad Idea.

If a 6th grader is having sex, I think birth control is not the issue. The larger issue is: Why is a sixth-grader having sex, and with whom? What good is birth control for a child who probably has some serious issue going on in their private lives?

Hormones have side effects for grown women. How will they affect a body that is still developing?

Also birth control pills require responsibility to work. You can't skip pills, or maybe take three all at once because you forgot the last two days....things a twelve-year-old might think are completely feasible.

However, I still go back to the first issue. We're talking about 11 and 12 year old children. I would say that there is probably more to the story about this type of child, what they have been exposed to, and how they feel about themselves.

Wheat Among Tares

Birth Control Pills for Sixth Graders?

Denise — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:27:34 -0500

When TW asked me whether I thought sixth graders should be able to acquire birth control pills at school, I said it seemed a little young to me. But as soon as I said it, I changed my mind. Now that I've read the story, Maine Middle School to Offer Birth Control, I'm glad I changed my mind.

After an outbreak of pregnancies among middle school girls, education officials in this city have decided to allow a school health center to make birth control pills available to girls as young as 11.

We may not like it but sixth grade girls are getting pregnant. Not as often as eigth grade girls, but it happens. And offering birth control pills at school, to sixth graders, might just help prevent those eighth grade pregnancies.

As you would expect, there are many bloggers weighing in with their opinions. What I find most interesting is a blog search on the topic pulls up a lot of angry, conservative, men blogging this topic. Fascinating creatures, conservative male bloggers, but that's a topic for another day - let's look at the women blogging, instead.

I found Jama's post amusing. I love homeschoolers!

I’m going to take a very interesting - and probably surprising - stance on this issue. Should they do it? Sure, why not?
My argument is simple: If you’re going to abdicate parental responsibility for 7 hours per day and give it over to the government, then this is what you can expect. For 7 hours per day (or however long they’re going to school today), you are not the parent - the government is. And the government gets to make the decisions. That means your daughter may be given the pill along with her school lunch.

Simple Ginger is concerned about possible health risks.

This is really frightening to me because of all the hormonal problems I've had with birth control, and I am 30 years old. People don't realize that a lot of women can't take hormonal birth control (which includes all versions: pills (both low and high dosess of hormones), patches, the nuva ring, etc.). All of these versions of birth control have caused me varying levels of anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, irritability, headaches, and insomnia. In addition, the use of birth control from a very young age has been linked by some doctors to difficulty in conceiving later in life, and to the development of potentially fatal blood clots.

I always look for a reason to link someone with a blog called Breakfast At Tiffany's and in this case, she has a good point.

The issue to me seems to be that schools and the government are once again letting parents off the hook. I don't care if it's uncomfortable for parents to talk to their kids about the birds and the bees. I don't care if it makes them blush and if their kids roll their eyes--it's their job. The moment you decided to have children or the moment the pregnancy test said positive and you decided to rear a child, you did more than say yes to having someone else live in your house. The moment you had children, you decided to take on the responsibilities of parenting. That means taking care of their primary needs (food, clothing, shelter) as well as teaching them about the world and about people and about themselves. If you are too scared or embarrassed to do this, don't have children. Parenting does not give you license to pick and choose which issues you want to deal with--if you want to raise a child, then you deal with all the issues, even sex and birth control.

Let me close with some words of wisdom from a live journaler young enough to be my daughter... (she isn't.)

So in short, fellow educators, let's all take a moment to get off our lofty, gold-leaf-decorated teacher thrones, and think back to what our middle school days were like. I knew a girl who was pregnant in the SIXTH GRADE. Had my school offered birth control, she might have been able to continue her education. Instead, I see her wandering around the next town over, with three (maybe four, now) kids in tow. Do I think this is what she foresaw for her life, her future? No. Maybe she had no greater dream than to graduate high school, but the fact that she sought love from a man who defined it as sex stopped her.

What do you think?

~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings and Fast Times @ Homeschool High