Do you think birth control should be given to 10 year olds?

Question

I was watching the news today and one state plans on giving birth control to 10 year olds. I was wondering what people thought about this. They must get parents permission, but what do you (mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles etc.) think. I myself want my child to be able to come to me if they plan to have sex (and will tell them so), but plan on teaching that it would be better for them to wait until they are old enough to be able to handle a child on their own and that I would prefer marriage. I just can't imagine having sex that young. I was still thinking about recess not boys and sex. I don't want my child catching an std or getting pregnant, but I want to provide it or a responsible adult close to her. Not a school nurse. Do they teach abstinence at all? When I went to school there were 16 year olds having babies and I thought that was young. What are your opinions?

Answer 1

This does NOT sound normal or even right.
Ten Years old is WAY too young to be having sex in first place, never mind takig birth control. That's utterly sick!

This would be a very good time to abstain from sexual activity - 10 years old is WAY to young for sex, by far. 16 is too young.

Why do I say this? Because sex is a very powerful force that can leave harmful and damaging effects on anyone at almost any age when they are, Too Young, Unwilling, Without Understanding, or Forced.

Sex is meant to be shared in an agreeable, tender fashion, and a fun and loving way between two Consenting ADULTS - NOT KIDS!

Parents and kids are not properly communicating or taking time for each other, so they lose track of each other and stupid things creep in.

Kids are supposed to be kids and begin to slowly mature at around 16 or so. For Pete's Sake - what's the rush?

Birth Control is certainly not recommended for children.

Having babies is not meant to be for FUN purposes - Having children and raising children is a HUGE responsibility - and a huge expense I might add. Raising children is a big job and it's meant to be fun - the creating of any life form is certainly not meant to be treated as a "novelty" but rather a serious (and enjoyable) responsibility.

Don't misunderstand - children are meant to be enjoyed and cherished, but setting them out as little prostitues isn't my idea of "enjoying" any child.

Anyone encouraging, or condoning their child to have sex at at 10 years of age has a very low self-esteem to say the least, and I'm having serious problems with that parents parental abilities.

That particular State has a serious problem and has no respect for children. What on earth are people thinking anyway.

Something isn't right here.

Answer 2

no, 10 is too young to be taking medication. As with any medication, there are side effects. School nurses have correct information, not to mention great pictures of gross STD's. But yes you are right, parents need to be involved in their childs life to guide them in the right direction. I have a 12 and 13 year old, and I am also a nurse. I think I have taught them more than enough on the birds and the bees, and yes they do ask weird questions sometimes, but I answer all questions to the best of my ability, and hope they feel they can always come to me for help. So far this has kept us very close. By the way, I had my first son at age 18.I have learned much from my own mistakes and from the mistake of my parents.

Answer 3

This is one of those really tough questions. Virtually any parent would be absolutely appalled by the idea of their 10 year-old child having sex. And I'm sure most every parent would be inclined to lock their child in the house if they knew they were having sex.

Unfortunately the reality is kids are having sex. I would imagine that it's exceptionally rare among 10 year-olds, but among 15-16 year-olds I would guess that as many as 30-40% are sexually active.

If you're asking me about giving birth control to a 10-12 year-old I'm going to say absolutely not. But a 13-14 year-old and up, it's not nearly as clear cut.

But the flip side is that if a 10-12 year-old is even asking about birth control it means they are having sex or at least thinking about it. And I also don't want my preteen daughter turning up pregnant or my preteen son getting a girl pregnant.

Answer 4

NEVER! What has this world come to? Why would a parent give a child, who isn't even a legal age to be having sex, birth control?!? CPS should be looking into this! Is it because we cannot threaten our children with a spanking that we can no longer control our children? But violence does not solve anything, so.... ? ... I guess different situations call for different answers....How about we start with the parents! People should have to apply for a parenting license, be tested and have to meet certain criteria before they can try to have children. In this instance, discrimination would be a useful tool in building a more responsibly aware society instead of a world full of idiots.

Answer 5

I dont believe it's right because it seems as though they are incouraging young kids to become sexually active.
I also believe that the company should start having morals instead of trying to make more money. They say practice safe sex but birth control pills are not safe of std's just pregnancy.
Instead, they should start investing in preventing pregnancy. The best method would be to give ALL kids a doll that piss, poup, cry that would need to be feed, and that would wake them up in the night, ALL HOURS, just like a real baby would. Give that to them for 2 weeks and a bet that we would notice a big drop in child pregnancy.
I had my two kids in my 20's and knew it would be hard but I never thought it would have been that hard. Being deprived of sleep...
Another method would be to show the kids the pain of having a child. Being in labor 10-20 hours, yelling at the top of your head. For myself, that alone scares me from having a third. The pain was awful.
I know they dont say that part to the kids.

Answer 6

Teaching abstinence does not always work. Is who teaching it? It is your responsibility to teach your child about sex. You can preach all you want to them but the truth of the matter is if they want to have sex they are going to do it. Ten is a little young but girls that age are having sex. When I was in school (in the 80's) two of my friends had babies in the eighth grade. Many more did by the time that we graduated. Since they are going to do it anyway would you not want them to be educated instead of only being taught abstinence? Did you not have sex until you were married? Did you do everything that your parents told you to do?

Answer 7

Personally NO..but not all children can open up to their parents about this subject..and not all parents want to take the time to listen to their child when they do bring this subject up.. A parent should know when a child is activate without the child having to telll them...parents need to take more responsibility in raising their children (their the ones that wanted, made and gave birth to them)..and this child is their responsibility to raise..the first mistake is the world is making our younger generation grow up more quickly than when we were growing up..I feel that this subject should be taught more in school, not just one year, but every year to every grade, and they should have people that have been exposed to different things come and discuss with them what pain and humiliation they have and still are going through.

Answer 8

I have to say i was put on the pill at age 12 because my periods were truly bad and it helped this was years ago and i was not having sex.. these days children are younger and younger when they are having sex i think if your a parent in that position I'm not sure what I'd do and if i knew my child was having sex i think i would also put her on the pill, but this is my opinion, schools can only teach a child so much what they do after school is down to them and their parents to enforce more education

Answer 9

I hadn't heard about this. It is absolutely ridiculous. A child molester must've come up with the idea.
Birth control pills are hormones, and giving children adult hormones will cause a lot of problems. How about seeing little 10 year old girls with breasts, periods, pubic hair, etc. Not to mention some people have problems with the birth control pills, short term or long term.
Somebody sure took a stupid pill!! I just can't get over how idiotic this is.
I'm a mom and a grandmother.

Answer 10

How can society push or advocate abstinence when TV, radio, even video games & children’s clothing stores send the opposite message???

While I agree with you on your ideals for dealing with this matter on your own, sadly many parents are more like baby sitters and they rely on everyone else to raise their children, for whatever reason.

I would yank my children so fast out of a school system that supported the dispensing of drugs/hormones or even condoms to young prepubescent children. I feel that present more temptation than it does teach responsibility!!!

I think that sex education across the board is extremely lacking, and that is putting it mildly compared to how I feel.

Sex is a normal natural thing, (I am going to get thumbs sown for this…) that should happen between a man & and woman, when they are in a loving, committed, safe, relationship called marriage, and not before.

(There that just solved a bunch of issues like illegitimate children & STD’s, etc.)

Understanding the complexity of sex and one’s own sexuality should be learned early, with the teaching of things like modesty, and why it is important, and not by shaming our children or making them feel dirty for being curious, but by teaching them to embrace the wonderful differences between men and women’s body, and how special those parts are and that they are not for everyone. I have been teaching my son that since he discovered his penis at age 2.

I believe that birth should be celebrated and that young girls (as young as are mature enough) should be exposed to their mothers & aunts births of their siblings and cousins. That accomplishes the teaching that birth is not something to be afraid of, that women are strong and have wonderful bodies that have a special purpose, to create life as well as maybe deter teen-pregnancy by seeing just exactly how much work is involved.

I think young men should have to be responsible for their younger siblings/family members, once in a while and not leave all the babysitting responsibilities to young girls.

I believe that Sex Ed. should really explain in honest detail the truths about any question the child is already knowledgeable to ask. When I was in Sex Ed. in 4th grade a friend asked about birth control, and the teachers refused to answer her question saying that was part of the subject they were not allowed to discuss. I say if our kids have questions answer them, other wise they are going to ask someone else and you have no control over the answer they get, which should be the plain & simple truth.

I think that far too many young girls view their menstrual cycles as a burden that gets in the way of “doing what they want, when they want” and they have never been able to see it for what it is, it means they have the ability to share in creating life! What a special honor to have. Why are so many women today having fertility issues, is it the drugs/hormones or is it in part due to the fact that no one wants to think about the reasons that they have those special organs while they are “doing what they want, when they want” and not taking proper care of them selves? Why are STD’s everywhere???

Because, we as a society have stopped embracing and teaching these fundamentals of abstinence and sexual relationships within the confines of marriage.

There were things I didn’t learn about my body and its wonderful functions until I was pregnant. Though I was older and married, I wonder if that is what is going through the minds of teen parents, the things they didn’t know?!