Friday, October 19, 2007

Oh. My. Word.

Just.....oh my.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303058,00.html

Is anyone else terrified that things are going in this direction?

6 comments:

nicole said...

What is wrong with a country where you can't get your ears pierced without parental consent, but you can get access to contraception? It is alarming.

mamashine said...

Scary. It did say you have to have a consent form to be treated at the health center, but does that mean your mom signs off on tylenol and you get bc?
I did have a pregnant eighth grader every year when I taught middle school. But I DO NOT THINK this is the answer, especially when it says condoms have been available since 2002. Why offer so many alternatives that are so bad?

Kate said...

I agree.

I have students who are pregnant and students who have kidS. I still think it's a bad idea. I think it's ineffective since the condoms weren't working and you can't trust a kid that age to brush her teeth religiously, so how is she going to take a pill every day at the same time? Add to that trying to hide pills from your mom.

Not to mention the fact that kids will then think they're safe from diseases. If there are that many pregnancies, that means there are that many acts of completely unprotected sex. Iwwww.

A truly scary thought: how many women our age have HPV. This message board where I hang out started discussing it and I was horrified. These are educated women and there was post after post by women saying they have it. A few even got it from their husbands. Forget the moral issues, is it really worth risking your health?

Alli said...

Grrr...I just had a whole long response typed out and lost it. Here's the short version.

I agree with everyone. But let's remember that this is so much more than preventing a few pregnancies. How many 11 year olds do we know that are ready to handle that kind of relationship? If the tax-payers in Maine can afford this kind of "help" why can't they afford some kind of education or support program for the kids at risk?

And what about what the pill will do to their bodies? What of the implications of a CHILD whose body is still growing and whose hormones are still getting sorted out and they start exposing themselves to that level of synthetic hormone? I can't take the pill because what it does to me and I'm a grown woman!

Anyway, I hope this discussion continues, but once it settles down, I'll probably delete the post and comments because there are some words that might get me some unwanted hits from gross/weird google searches.

nicole said...

To Kelli in the Mirror: the consent is just for care at the student clinic, so yes, the parent could be thinking along the lines of painkiller and never know that birth control was offered.

All of the comments make excellent points. I have often thought that we need to do much more to educate these girls and help them discover their worth outside of a relationship. When a girl feels valuable for who she is without being in a relationship, she will begin to make decisions that reflect that.

Since there are new studies constantly coming out about how BC works and how it affects women in various states of health and with various lifestyle habits (smoking, weight, etc.) I find it very dangerous to dispense these medications to young girls whose bodies are still growing. Do we know what kind of long-term damage might be caused?

I am definitely curious to see how long this will be a story that is followed by national media.

Alli said...

Nicole, I'm a Fox News junkie, and they are still talking about it (I heard it this morning). A conservative group (I don't know which, I was only half paying attention from the other room) is calling on the district to reconsider.

I don't at all follow the more liberal media. It wouldn't surprise me if they've quit talking about it...if they ever covered the story at all.