Should Teenagers Be Allowed to Get Birth Control without the Permission of Parents?
KaTrina Bacon
English 215
February 2, 2012
Dr.Sharonda Johnson
Should Teenagers Be Allowed to Get Birth Control without the Permission of Parents?
Of all the many controversies that have affected the United States in the past decades, birth control has been one of the more important topics. Some popular birth control methods are the female and male condoms, and the birth control pill. Even though both of these help protect against pregnancy and the female and the male condoms help protect against HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STD). This raises the question, should teenagers be allowed to receive birth control methods without their
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My religion which is Christianity, instructs us to wait until they are married to have begun to have sex. But not only in churches is abstinence being preached, but public schools is adding this to their curriculum, and teaching the teenagers about the greatness of keeping their virginity. Teenagers having sex before marriage is a growing issue among teenagers. Sex before marriage is the cause of teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and emotional distress.
Sexually transmitted diseases show in a society of teenagers that are having premarital sex, because teenagers have so many different sex partners. Therefore, a result to teenagers having sex is the different disease which is becoming more common in the teenage population. Because, for this is that the teenagers don not know how to use the different birth control methods. Many teenagers believe that the pill or condoms stop the spread of AIDs, other diseases, and herpes so, the contraceptives do not prevent these diseases from spreading. Three million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers are reported each year. (www.helpme.com)
There are so many teens that feel that there is nothing wrong in having sex before marriage, but having sexual relations with numerous people from age 15 and 19 doubles the diseases that have been spreading to different people every time. Because teenagers are having
Master of Professional Health Debra Hauser states that sexual education is an essential part of the development and growth of teenagers. In her article “Youth Health and Rights in Sex Education”, MPH Hauser provides a report of teenage pregnancies and STDs incidences, which points out that each year in the United States, about 750,000 teens become pregnant, with up to 82 percent of those pregnancies being unintended. Young people ages 15-24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S (Hauser). According to Hauser, “sex education teaches young people the skills they need to protect themselves”, such as the ability to recognize patterns of a toxic relationships, learning to value and have control over their bodies, understanding
A 16-year-old girl visits a birth control clinic and asks to be put on the pill. Since she is a minor, the clinic doctor who writes the prescription for her notifies her parents of the action. As of the year 2016, there are only 26 states that allow minors to obtain contraceptives without parental consent. There are 20 states that allow certain minors to obtain contraceptives without parental consent and those include minors that are married or who have already been pregnant. Four states have no laws on parental consent (Gutimacher Institute, 2016). This ethical controversy leaves room for an open interruption of whether or not minors should need parental consent to gain access to birth control, to apply ethical reasoning to this controversy one must examine the ethical principles of utilitarianism, rights-based, duty-based, justice based, and virtue-based ethics.
Teens end up getting sexually transmitted diseases because they are unaware of the consequences of unprotected sex. No abstinence-only program affected the incidence of unprotected vaginal sex (The Australian). Annually 3 million teenagers contract STDs from their partner (Robert Rector). Teens who have early sex not only suffer from STDs, they also have emotional and physical damage. Research shows that young people who become sexually
"Approximately four million teens get a sexually transmitted disease every year" (Scripps 1). Today’s numbers of sexually active teens differ greatly from that of just a few years ago. Which in return, projects that not only the risk of being infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) has risen, but the actual numbers of those infected rise each year as well. These changes have not gone unnoticed. In fact have produced adaptations as to how society educates its young adults about sex, using special programs, various advertising, and regulating sexual education courses in public schools. One major adaptation is the advancement and availability of
Currently Teenagers are trying to grow up too quickly. They want to be just like the TV characters they idolize and will change themselves to do so. There are shows on TV like “16 and pregnant” that basically insinuate; if you have sex and get pregnant then you will get paid to be on television. Most teens do not go to their parents for birth control because they are afraid. In general teenagers do not want their parents knowing they are having sex. Having access to birth control, with or without the parents permission, can be a touchy subject. With this point, getting birth control without parental consent is a debatable
Birth control should not be allowed for teens because of the cost. According to Planned Parenthood, “Birth control can cost from $0-50 and that does not include the doctor price/visit,” (Where Can I Buy Birth Control Pills & How Much Do They Cost). Not everyone has the money to pay for birth control on their own so not everyone can afford it. Erin Gloria Ryan stated, “The high cost of birth control has prompted 25% of women who make less than $75,000 per year to put off going to the doctor. About 29% of women in the same income range have used their birth control method incorrectly in an attempt to try to make it last longer,” (Actually, Birth Control's Pretty Expensive). Lots of women are not using their birth control the right way due to trying to make it last longer since they can't really afford it so much. Some people think that birth control is a form of abortion. This prevents having a fertilized egg even though this is not what birth control is used for it helps this process. They also say birth control is unnatural and interferes with conceiving a child. They're trying to say that birth control interferes with the world's natural order ruining the cycle of conceiving a child. Although the core of this argument seems valid, it has a mistake in it's logic. Birth control should be allowed for teens so that not so many teen girls are dropping out of school early due to unwanted or unplanned
Teenage sexuality and birth control have long been controversial topics that many find themselves unwilling to discuss. However, ignoring these issues will not make them disappear. The fact of the matter remains that teens are having sex and need confidential access to prescription birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies. With the looming possibility of tremendous socio-economic effect upon society from an increase in teen pregnancies, allowing teens to access birth control without parental consent is
In other circumstances such as a defective condom or faulty birth control, the choice should still rest with the mother. Clearly, she was not in the type of situation to raise a child. If she thought that she was ready or wanted to have a child, then she would not have taken precautions not to have one. If she does not want a child, then she should not be forced to give birth and keep one. A woman could also be using birth control items because she knows that she is in no way fit to be a mother (Camp 1). Maybe she knows that her partner is not reliable enough to have a child with or maybe she does not have the proper necessities such as money, food, shelter, education, etc. to care for a child. There are so many reasons that a woman could
While some speakers on the issue argue their side with the perspective of the students and teens in mind others focus on the parents and how their perspectives relate to the issue. Helium.com presently has a poll and debate occurring that allows the public to review multiple arguments from both sides of the debate, and then vote “Yes” or “No” on the issue of teens receiving birth control at school. Jeannie Kerns, a mother of seven children, says that it’s in the best interest of the teen, and their parents, to allow them to have the option to decide for themselves if they require “the pill”. She supports her argument by informing the reader, no matter how strongly parents push for their children to abstain from sex they’ll most likely engage in it anyway. She closes her argument by asking why parents wouldn’t
Teenagers are still growing and learning. Sometimes we forget that they are making choices that can affect their whole life. Yes, we are here to teach them and to guide them in making decisions that will help shape their future. Are they going to make mistakes? Are they going to regret some of their choices? Are they going to wish that they had listened to their parents at times that they didn’t? I’m pretty sure that we made mistakes as teenagers and decisions that we wish we could change. I know that some made worse choices than others but, we have all made poor choices at one time or another even as adults. I definitely feel that
In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States
Today, sexually active teenagers can get contraceptives to protect themselves from unplanned pregnancies or sexual diseases without a parent’s permission. In some states federal lawmakers have taken away the ability for teens to protect themselves, they want to prevent sexually active teenagers from getting birth control and condoms unless they get parents permission. Preventing teens from getting contraceptives unless they tell a parent will not stop them from having sex. It will drive them away from the services they need to protect themselves, leading to higher rates of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases
Knowledge about condoms and contraceptives provide the teenagers a better understanding which may lessen the incidence of early pregnancies and infections brought about by sexual intercourse. The author also recommends the government to sponsor condom availability programs for high school students to provide more access to condoms and contraceptives. Prohibiting the young people of today from using condoms and contraceptives may only increase the problems of illnesses and unwanted pregnancies so it may be more beneficial to do
Society has plugged information into young people’s mind for generations. This programmed, presumptive information has made youthful people, especially teenagers, and young adults think and act like robots. Buried deep in many teenagers thoughts ensued by their parents and society are the words, “No sex before marriage!”. Different people, have countless different reasons that they believe one should not have sex before marriage. Society, in lots of different places look poorly on those who engage sexually before being married. I’ve witnessed it happen more then once locally in my area, and its always ends with such a negative outcome. Even in schools kids are taught that sex is bad thing, and told not to engage in any sort of sexual activity. Rather then being taught about the importance of safe sex society is programing kids to just not have sex at all, especially in America. “Americans love to tout the value of waiting until marriage to have sex. We teach abstinence-only education in schools across the country, and even comprehensive sex-ed programs often point out that "abstinence is best."” (Jill Filipovic). People get married, most of the time, because the love each other but marriage is only a document. And when you love someone, you don’t need a contract to prove it. And you shouldn’t need a stamp of approval saying when and when you’re not allowed to be intimate with someone you love. Having sex before marriage should not be looked so poorly upon this day in age.
Students that are sexually active need to have access to condoms to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases. Teens have problems with birth control for several reasons, and because of this lack of birth control teens are more susceptible to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.