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This past week, the school board in Portland, Maine approved of the program that would provide students attending King Middle School access to a wide range of contraceptives, including birth control pills and the patch. The school was already providing the students with condoms when needed but decided that a wider range of contraceptives was necessary.
The students that attend King Middle School in Portland are as young as ten years old and I do not agree with the school board's decision to allow students to obtain contraceptives without parental consent. Students that age are still innocent and I do not believe that they are mature enough to handle such an adult responsibility. Birth control is a method that only works when it is taken accurately and correctly on a continuous basis. For example, birth control pills need to be taken everyday at the same time and there is only a two hour window that the pill can taken either earlier or later. I do not believe that ten year old girls are capable of remembering to take the pill everyday at the same time when they are more concerned with talking on the phone or playing with friends. By allowing such young students to have access to birth control, the school board is opening the door for a widespread sexually transmitted disease outbreak. They are also allowing the opportunity for so many unwanted pregnancies to occur. In today's day and age, girls are hitting puberty at ages as young as seven years old, so a ten year old girl is very capable of being impregnated.
On the other hand, I can understand why a majority of the members of the Portland school board thought that making contraceptives easily accessible to middle school students would be a good idea. With the way that society has progressed, young girls and boys are more sexually active and sexually aware than ever before. Although not every ten year old boy or girl is sexually active, there are enough that are to cause a school board to want to make birth control available to this age. I would rather individuals that are so young to not be sexually active, but if they are, then making contraceptives easily accessible to them does not seem like such a bad idea after all.
