People of faith are you appalled at , Portland, Maine handing out birth control to 6th. graders?

Question

You can hand out different forms of birth control to middle schoolers, but not religious literature.

Answer 1

Seems pretty outrageous to me. Especially because people's tax dollars are paying for that birth control.

Answer 2

I don't approve of young kids having sex -BUT, I would much rather have every child in America have birth control rather then having an abortion. Granted, in a perfect world parents would and should take the responsibility for their own children both in education and ensuring that if they experiment they use birth control.

Edit:
Nandina has a good point about the type of birth control, I definitely think that the pill is not the best thing to be distributing to young females without medical supervision. On the other hand Latex condoms serve two purposes: birth control and some protection from STD's.

It is also important to send the message (this should be coming from parents) that being prepared and having a responsible attitude towards sex is not the same as having permission to have sex.

Answer 3

They SHOULD be appalled. They ALL know that God WANTS 6th graders to get pregnant, and sexually transmitted diseases!

OK sorry for the sarcasm there. Should they be allowed to hand out birth control? I am not sure of the answer. It is certainly a situation that is a concern to many people. I believe that is something that the parents should have control of. But the REALITY of the situation is that many parents do NOT have control of the issue, for many reasons. And personally I feel that the schools DO have a sort of obligation to help protect our children. "It takes a village" is certainly a reasonable philosophy!

What it boils down to is this: if the people of faith have been teaching their children properly, there should be NO issue with this in regards to THEIR children. Their children will already know what to do about this issue. But the ones who NEED the protection will also have it. And to me, THAT is what is most important. I believe that losing even 1 child due to a lack of education on the issues is one too many!

Edit -- sorry Jesskey, you seem to be a little bit confused about the law. The age of consent is what you said, that is correct. But it is NOT true that people under that age are not allowed to have sex. It is not illegal for a 14 year old girl to have sex with a 14 year old boy. It is not even illegal for the 14 year old girl to have sex with a 40 year old man, at least not for the girl!

Answer 4

it is so incredably bad! To all you dumb, uneducated people, heres why. If you agree with this ridiculous rule, then you must've had sex at 7!!! I honestly dont't understand this mentalitly of "if they're gonna do it, then they should be protected." That is such you know what. Does that mean they should hand out baby blankets too!? Just in case they have the "urge?" Come on guys! Kids need to have some responsibility and self control for their actions! Believe it or not, not all kids will or SHOULD have sex when they are in 6th grade! Our culture is going down, way down, and it is because of this and dumb stuff like the HPV virus. Kids SHOULD NOT be having sex until they're mentally, and physically ready. And I don't care what kind of so called "mature" kid it is, because that's what they are, KIDS! They are not emotionally prepared for the aftermath of sex, no matter how many condoms or pills they have.These KIDS are in middle school, they should not even be THINKING about sex until they are much older, AT LEAST in High School for crying out loud! And where are these parents whose kids are having sex in middle school?! I'm sorry, but parents need to be parents NOT friends. They need to say no once in a while, and set restrictions. This is truly and utterly ridiculous.

Answer 5

People of what faith? Are you asking Christians to be appalled at the prospect of a 12 year old getting pregnant? Jesus mother, Mary was most likely about the age of a sixth grader.

The age they married off back then was 12 for girls and 13 for boys in Jewish culture.

I've heard that at Christmas there are still religious tracts with that bogus story of the candy cane being handed out at schools with a line for kids to sign their soul away to Jesus on them.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/candycane.asp

If you are worried if your sixth grader is having sex, you are either not supervising them well enough or you haven't done YOUR job to make sure they have proper sex education and respect for themselves.

The birth control won't be used if you are doing your job. Quit intruding where you don't have a clue.

Answer 6

Hmmm. Here in NH (one state over) school nurses can't hand out an aspirin without parental permission. It seems very wrong to hand out a body changing medication (birth control pills) to 11, 12 and 13 year olds. Condoms on the other hand would be fine with me. They do not change a persons body chemistry.

Edit: Just read this article: http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO64705/
Parental permission is needed to access the health center. Parental permission is not required to give the little girls (yes, little girls) BC pills. I am a firm believer in parental notification in reproductive matters. As a father of an 11 year old girl I would like (no demand) to know if my little girl was taking birth control pills. I also have to wonder just how effective BC pills are going to be in the hands of an 11 year old.

Answer 7

The age isn't all that appalling. People these days forget that it was common for girls to be married off within months of her first menses not even a century ago in developed nations, and it still happens today in underdeveloped nations. The age that people are having sex hasn't changed. What has changed is the age our society allows marriage.
There are pregnant 5th graders in the U.S. Children are going to know what sex is regardless of the parents or schools refusing to tell them. The problem is, on top of not informing them about sex, they don't give them any information on safe sex practices until they are in 7th or 8th grade.
With the consent of the parents and doctors, I have no issue with birth control being issued to 6th graders.

Answer 8

I have to say this issue goes well beyond the rubric of Pro/Anti Abortion. So guys and dolls who have a knee-jerk reaction for either side, you might want to sit down.

Your mental lens is getting in the way of good policy.

First, to echo the folks who have been saying this, is there some sort of large prevalent and increasing trend of sexual encounters between 12-13 year olds that we're not aware of?

Second, Nandina is absolutely right. Unrestricted access to hormone-altering medication is NOT good health policy. If they want to push it that way, there should be at least 2-3 doctors monitoring the kids' health. If not, then they should move toward teaching protected sex.

Answer 9

Everyone is not religious and religion is not genetic. Whether you partake in sexual activity or not, none of us are immune to the urges no matter how religious you are. The Pope, Nuns, Priest's, Pastor's, all have sexual urges. I think this is being responsible. Our society is beginning to understand that we can't rely on the competence of parents because some are not competent. It is a parents responsibility to educate their children however some do not. I consider backup plans a great thing.

I have seen people who grow up in the church engage in sexual activity and also get pregnant out of wedlock. Religion, nor do sex education keep kids from doing adult things.

Answer 10

I'm from Maine and an atheist. I saw this on the news and I have to say that I do not agree with it. They could hand out condoms. The thing is...more and more boys won't use condoms. More girls should say no until they do.

There are many health problems with taking birth control pills and I don't agree with anyone but a doctor giving them out. On the news, it said that it would be with the parent's permission...so take the kid to the doctor!

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Answer 11

I would say 6th grade is too young, but little kids are nasty. So they should had out dental dam also.
9th grade is more appropriate for this, though. If parents educated their children on their sexuality then outsiders would have to.
If the little kids are engaging in adult activities and the school system knows it, then do something to help. It really is not a bad idea.