Birth Control At School? Most Say It's OK

AP Poll: 67% Of Americans Favor Letting Public Schools Provide Contraceptives

(AP)  Americans decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed.

Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many - 62 percent - said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.

"Kids are kids," said Danielle Kessenger, 39, a mother of three young children from Jacksonville, Florida, who supports providing contraceptives to those who request them. "I was a teenager once and parents don't know everything, though we think we do."

Yet most who support schools distributing contraceptives prefer that they go to children whose parents have consented. People are also closely divided over whether sex education and birth control are more effective than stressing morality and abstinence, and whether giving contraceptives to teenagers encourages them to have sexual intercourse.

"It's not the school's place to be parents," said Robert Shaw, 53, a telecommunications company manager from Duncanville, Texas. "For a school to provide birth control, it's almost like the school saying, 'You should go out and have sex."'

Those surveyed were not asked to distinguish between giving contraceptives to boys or girls.

The survey was conducted in late October after a school board in Portland, Maine, voted to let a middle school health center provide students with full contraceptive services. The school's students are sixth- through eighth-graders, when most children are 11 to 13 years old, and do not have to tell their parents about services they receive.

Portland school officials plan to consider a proposal soon that would let parents forbid their children from receiving prescription contraceptives like birth control pills.

Teenage pregnancy rates have declined to about 75 per 1,000, down from a 1990 peak of 117, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research center. Still, nearly half of teens aged 15 to 19 report having had sex at least once, and almost 750,000 of them a year become pregnant.

The 67 percent in the AP poll who favor providing birth control to students include 37 percent who would limit it to those whose parents have consented, and 30 percent to all who ask.

Minorities, older and lower-earning people were likeliest to prefer requiring parental consent, while those favoring no restriction tended to be younger and from cities or suburbs. People who wanted schools to provide no birth control at all were likelier to be white and higher-income earners.

"Parents should be in on it," said Jennifer Johnson, 29, of Excel, Alabama, a homemaker and mother of a school-age child. "Birth control is not saying you can have sex, it's protecting them if they decide to."

About 1,300 U.S. public schools with adolescent students - less than 2 percent of the total - have health centers staffed by a doctor or nurse practitioner who can write prescriptions, said spokeswoman Divya Mohan of the National Assembly of School-Based Health Care. About one in four of those provide condoms, other contraceptives, prescriptions or referrals, Mohan said.

Less than 1 percent of middle schools and nearly 5 percent of high schools make condoms available for students, said Nancy Brener, a health scientist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Underlining the schisms over the issue, those saying sex education and birth control were better for reducing teen pregnancies outnumber people preferring morality and abstinence by a slim 51 percent to 46 percent.

Younger people were likelier to consider sex education and birth control the better way to limit teenage pregnancies, as were 64 percent of minorities and 47 percent of whites. Nearly seven in 10 white evangelicals opted for abstinence, along with about half of Catholics and Protestants.

In addition, 49 percent say providing teens with birth control would not encourage sexual intercourse and a virtually identical 46 percent said it would.

The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,004 adults from Oct. 23-25. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

[michellem99-2009]

I am a New Englander/Maine. Why are we hashing this issue..Yer won''t. I am not for children being put on birth control. There are predators in the school and that is the ticket and that being adult,also in the home.Is it teacher''s job or yers as Mum/Dad. Does yer church get in the way.Are yer kids too scared to come to ye and if so will they get beat/told off. I am for ye bringing up them proper. The paw to gently tap their seats and told why at the same time..Some go overboard, They are out of control. Mind..teachers having sexx with their pupils. That is wrong and ye know it..What are yer going to do..We pay for the schools and staff there. It is a slap in the face so to speak when a teacher abuses a pupil.

[drivelphobe]

Hey jumkey...pal!

You are debunked. The "facts" were lies. I have no prejudice, only hands on experience. The poll was BS from the start. Let the school give your daughters and granddaughters jells, ointments, lubricants, pills, condoms, etc. In fact, why don''t they name a special kit for these youngsters in your name. They could call it "Jumkey''s," a primer for toddler fornication".

[drivelphobe]

I stated earlier that this poll was a con. Just read that 63% of those questioned had no school-aged childre. Just more BS.

The schools should teach and stay out of parental responsibilities and rights. Most teachers are wanna be''s anyway and can''t wait to apply power they can''t have without a classroom of young kids. In real life, most teachers are misfits, with real self-image issues.

[aliceyvonne]

How can it be right for them to give out birth control when it is illegal for the kids to have *** in the first place?? My son got in trouble for doing this exact thing.. I dont know where she got the birth control for sure or if her parents even knew about it but I am sure they did because they let her boyfriend spend the night, but they had my son arrested for having *** with her. To me the whole situation is a double standard. They give them birthcontrol but tell them not to use it????? I dont understand!! I think this needs to be looked at more closely and the boys who get in trouble need to have a little help in these situations it is not only the girl who is the victim. My sons life is ruined because of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very upset with the double standards in this country..

[actornaught]

Posted by Carolynm6 at 05:59 PM : Nov 01, 2007

Yes, wake up. Not every kid hit the Parent Lottery. And despite the best parenting, some kids just have insist on having bad judgement. B.C. is much cheaper than the alternative, no reason to compound the problem.

Any way you look at it, trying to force some or all kids to be naive is, and always was, a roundly losing proposition.

[carolynm6]

Our neighboring town has a population of about 16,000 (which is BIG for this area) and they have a Daycare at their Public High School because so many students have had babies. One is a girl I know. She comes from a close knit family who goes to Church every Sunday and All the Church functions. She had high grades, good friends, but got stupid and fell for the "If you Love Me...". If Parents can''''t face the facts their teenagers may be having *** then I am all for a High School, even Junior High, providing birth control.


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Posted by sunseeker6 at 12:32 PM : Nov 01, 2007
+ report abuse

I can''t understand why the school has to supply, and we as tax payers have to pay the cost,for kids who want to practice birth control. If the kids are mature enough to have *** they should supply their own protection.

[carolynm6]

What is wrong with our society when we as parents don''t see anything wrong in giving up our rights and responsibilty as parents to a govt that does not value your childs self worth, individuality, family values or freedom of religion. Your rights as a parent are slowly being disregarded...Wake up!

[mocalleo]

Buried in the CBS article, but should have been part of the headline


"Yet MOST who support schools distributing contraceptives
PREFER that they go to children whose PARENTS HAVE CONSENTED."

.

[pmitchem1]

I think it is sick that people are seriously willing to give children birth control. The government needs to get out of our homes.

[grammawhamma]

What kind of birth control are we talking about here? Condoms, birth control pills, birth control injections, the morning after pill?? It makes a difference.

Condoms...no problem with or without parental consent. The others are medications and should be given "only" with parental consent. Will a kid this young really remember to take a pill every day...I doubt it. Will the school be held accountable if a kid is given the pill without parental consent and developes a blood clot from it?

Parents who say they have taught proper values to their kids and the school better not interfere with their parental rights should have nothing to worry about.

[papabc]

Teacher And Boy, Apparent Lovers, On Run
Police Searching For Female Middle School Teacher And 13-Year-Old From Nebraska
=================================

Who did they ask, Kids or Move-ON adults with lax morals?

[actornaught]

LMAO.... this is funny stuff, say something else.

[actornaught]

lol... this is like trying to make a point with the guy that forgets everything that happened more than 7 seconds ago.

[actornaught]

Posted by ilikecats1 at 03:45 PM : Nov 01, 2007

"you don''t know what it means" = "you don''t have a grip."

Pretty short attention span on your part. See: comprehension problems, below.

[actornaught]

Posted by ilikecats1 at 03:40 PM : Nov 01, 2007

You have reading an comprehension problems.

But you do seem paranoid...

[actornaught]

Posted by ilikecats1 at 03:25 PM : Nov 01, 2007

okaaaaay....

If you''re up in arms about the subject of this study, i''m talking about you.

btw, since you used "liberal" in a pejorative fashion, i automatically realize you don''t know what it means. I''m not a liberal, but I don''t give a rats behind if you want to call me that, since, as i said, you don''t have a grip.

[diehardrepub]

"What does he know?"

[diehardrepub]

"Who''s teaching sexxxx-ed?"

"That guy wit de toopay."

[fibonacci_]

I think seeing that America has such an incredibly high teen pregnancy rate it might not be a bad idea. Maybe our slight prudishness as a culture has a negative impact on our youth.

[bdrlnt4rl]

I''''ll betcha diehardrepub is a little exteme. we just need to realize there is a serious problem, hollywood to blame, and there should be parenting classes in high school as well. anger management classes also. if schools want to take over the parenting process because of lazy parent, lets push them to go all the way!