Birth Control

For the younger crowd, the topic of sex in no longer considered "awkward." Teens have "the birds and the bees" talk starting at very young ages now. With teens being encircled with all of the advanced sexuality in today's society, many teenagers are becoming sexually active at very young ages. More and more the trend of being "sexy" is taking control of the younger crowd, and forcing them to grow up just a tad bit faster than people would wish to see. Sexuality has swept the nation and is corrupting the minds of the innocent. Thus being said, the question stands, should teenage girls be able to obtain birth control without their parents' consent? Many would think, "no, absolutely not!" I see both sides of the fence on this one.

There are various types of protections for those who are sexually active. There are birth control pills, there are male and female condoms, there are shots you can take, vaginal inserts for females, and many more. On one side teens should be allowed to have access to birth control without their parents' consent, because let's face it; many teenagers are not comfortable talking to their parents about their sex lives. If teens had the access to birth control without needing their parents, more teenagers would use protection, and possibly decrease the rate of teen pregnancy.

Many teens are not willing to admit to their parent or guardian that they are sexually active. So instead of fessing up, and using protection, they have sex with no sort of protection. The rate of teen pregnancy has dramatically increased in the past five years, 8% each year, according to USA Today. When I graduated high school, I had around thirteen girls that I had known that had had a child; some even had two or more children by that time. A lot of girls admitted that if they would have had access to some type of birth control without having to get their parents involved, they do not think they would have children now.

On the other side of the fence, I can also see why it would not be a wise idea to allow birth control to be accessible to any teen girl who would like to receive it. In many ways, having birth control for anyone who wants it is almost the same thing as saying "well here is some protection, so go on and have sex." I do not agree with the fact that we should "allow" or "influence" sexual behaviors in young adults. It is good to be aware and know that there are options, but throwing the options at their face is only going to make many teenagers believe, "well hey, they're giving me all the precautions that I need to use, so why not go ahead and have sex." You have to be able to have a little bit of control over what young adults can and cannot do. There is no way that you can completely stop a teen from having sex, but informing them about it, and not giving them direct access to the things that they will need,