Should Birth Control For Teens Without Prescription?

Submitted By gjvsoej
Words: 1208
Pages: 5

Birth Control For Teens Without Prescription?

A federal judge recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after pill and birth control available to all women regardless the age without a prescription. This caused massive protest from people who are against abortions and abstinence advocates. I think that birth control and routine check should be available to all teens without a prescription because
The anti birth control party argues that giving teens the ability to access birth control without a prescription will make them want to engage in more sexual activities. Research taken shows that requiring teens to tell a parent before they can access contraceptive services doesn't reduce their sexual activity it will just put their health and lives at risk (ProCon.org). It cuts off the teenager’s access to routine gynecological exams; it can very dangerously postpone screenings for STD’s. For example, a study that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on what sexually active teenage girls seeking services at family planning clinics in Wisconsin would do if they were not able to get prescription contraceptives unless the clinic notified their parents. A whooping 47 percent of sexually active teenage girls said that they would stop accessing all reproductive health care services from the clinic if they couldn't get contraceptives without first telling their parents (ProCon.org). 12 percent would stop using some reproductive health care services or would delay testing or treatment for HIV or other STDs (ProCon.org). This altogether means 59 percent of sexually active teenage girls would stop or delay getting critical health care services however 99 percent of these teens the ones who would stop or delay getting contraceptive services or STD testing and treatment said they would continue having sex. The anti birth control party argues that most forms of contraceptives have potentially dangerous side effects for young women, which parents, not clinic workers are left to deal with. They say that recent national statistics show that teen sexual activity, pregnancy rates, and abortion rates are declining, they argue that the messages we send to our teens should encourages this trend by stressing the dangers of premature sexual activity and that parents are the most appropriate and reliable people to send such a message. But this proves nothing since they’re unable to stop 100% teenage sexual activities, and most teens seeking services at federally funded programs are more than likely already sexually active. The truth is rather teenage sexual activity is declining or not it is still happening which is why teens should be able to freely access the care that they need to practice safe sex, statistics show that over half of all new HIV infections in the United States occur in adolescents (Feroli). In fact every year three million U.S. teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease and if these diseases are left untreated they can have life long consequences. For this reason exactly is why the leading medical organizations, like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Public Health Association, and the Society for Adolescent Medicine, among many more oppose laws that would require teens to involve a parent (Feroli).
The party against birth control without a prescription argues that preventing teenagers from getting contraception unless they involve a parent will improve family communication. But counter to that the government cannot and should not be the mandate for healthy family communication and the Federal Law already requires health care providers in federally funded clinics to encourage teens to speak to their parents about their health care decisions. But some teens simply do not have a caring and responsible parent in which