On giving middle schoolers birth control...

I do not think that it is a good idea to openly provide birth control to middle school students, especially without their parent’s consent. Honestly, if you’re not mature enough to tell your parents that you need birth control, then you’re not mature enough to be having sex. Also, whenever you have a doctor’s appointment you have to tell them what medications you are taking, and there are a lot of side affects of birth control that parents should look out for. You can’t take certain other drugs when you are on birth control, and if there is a medical emergency, your parents need to know what medications you are on, maybe in order to save your life. I don’t particularly object to the idea of being able to prescribe birth control at middle school, but I don’t think that it is even safe to give them the medication without telling the child’s parent. It is not the place of the school to take the parent's role in deciding what is right for their child. Even though middle school girls are getting pregnant every year, the school still provides other forms of contraceptives such as condoms, which are 95% effective if used correctly (note: birth control is only 4% more effective when used correctly). Obviously, if these students are already taking advantage of these, then they must be using them incorrectly, which would lower the effectiveness to 87%. I really don’t think that it is particularly necessary to provide middle school children with birth control, because they are provided with other types of contraception that should work almost as effectively, and wouldn’t cause potential harm to the girls.