Abstinence would be the best choice for a young person (and hell adults too).

Of course abstinence is a personal choice not an official policy and most people just don't have the personal will and self respect to practice celibacy.

But then I don't know why the schools should provide prophylactics. If a kid is old enough to have sex, then they should be old enough to buy their own, and responsible enough to know to.

Human beings are physically designed to procreate at that time in their lifespan. The only reason we think it is so wrong is that we have an arbitrary cultural repugnance of it, and an economy not designed for adolescent parenthood. The question then is not so much should contraceptives be available to childrens, but rather, should we alter our economy and social moors to reflect our biology.

Sent by Jody Sol | 6:56 PM ET | 10-18-2007

A small victory for common sense. With teens and preteens constantly being exposed to sexual subject matter and peer pressure, to count on abstinence is unrealistic and foolish. Birth rates in advanced industrialized countries have been leveling off for many years now for one reason, more educated people with reproduction choices and control over those choices and their own bodies. The alternative is more fodder for Jerry Springer and the like, with three or four young women all saying they have babies from the same man.

Sent by John R. Otten | 7:16 PM ET | 10-18-2007

I agree with what the Scripture says, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: FORNICATION, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Col. 3:5)

Of course there's temptation every where and any time, but God's grace and mercy can overcome and rule out sin and it's consequences.

If sinners reject forgiveness and the power to overcome sin from God, NO WHERE ELSE we do. Christ Jesus is the only Way to the salvation of God.

I am proude of having such a gracious and holy God.

Sent by Esther | 9:16 PM ET | 10-18-2007

Edification: "NO WHERE ELSE we do" should be changed to "from NO WHERE ELSE we find the solution."

Sent by Esther | 9:47 PM ET | 10-18-2007

We MUST give kids the information to defends themselves against the many illnesses and problems created by having sex too soon. In an IDEAL world, every child would have religious values instilled at home. Then you face REALITY. Unfortunately, sexuality is also a public health safety issue, which MUST be addressed in our schools. It's not just a matter of morality when it's a matter of LIFE or DEATH. Research shows sex education works to prevent teen pregnancy, STDs and improves sexual responsibility. Preaching abstinence-only continues to prove ineffective, so it's time to get real. No one says we should stop our efforts to save souls, but we should also try to SAVE lives by supporting developmentally appropriate SEX EDUCATION.

Sent by Claudia -Teen Survivor Coordinator | 10:36 AM ET | 10-19-2007

Okay, so god is gracious and holy and merciful, and directs his loving, saved, sinless followers to murder anyone who falls afoul of some general and potentially broadly interpreted proscribed activites...hmm, seems like a mixed message to me. And this schizophrenic psychopath holds the only answer to appropriate behavior in our culture? Curiouser and curiouser, as Mr. Carroll commented. This sort of bent thinking makes me want to re-read my Dawkins and Harris. I continue to marvel at the perversions that religion can visit upon impressionable minds, replacing compassion and logical thought with a form of fundamentalist fascism that appeals to the hatred, divison and xenophobia fostered by organized religion today.

Sent by Olivia | 10:45 AM ET | 10-19-2007

Dawkins is a weenie...

Sent by Jody Sol | 11:58 AM ET | 10-19-2007

Oh olivia, your comment put a big smile on my face. You are quite correct. Should we make decisions based on what is happening today? Or based on a book written, then translated, and rewritten, and retranslated, on events 2000 years old? The logical answer is obvious.

Obviously abstinence appears to be the answer. But evidence shows it does not work. Abstinence only sex ed has even shown to increase accounts of oral sex, and anal sex, which is actually more dangerous to the girl and more likely to spread disease.

Parents cannot live in denial anymore. Whether denial of their child's sexual explorations, or denial of improperly preparing for their child for them.

A school should not have to approve a measure like this one, but parents and society has forced them into it. The reality is that young and preteens are having sex, and educating them on how to act responsibility, and having easy access to what allows responsibility, is the only logical answer.

And the Christian right needs to wake up. Especially the ones who are against abortion, against contraception, and non-abstinence only sex education. When the truth, the best way to prevent abortion, is to prevent the pregnancy, and the best way to prevent the pregnancy is promoting safe sex practices.

Sent by Bryan | 12:02 PM ET | 10-19-2007

The best way to prevent pregnancy is to talk to your child and tell them to use a condom and birth control pills too, to keep their eyes open for sex offenders and addicts. There are plenty of them around.

Sent by Kapetan Mitsaras in search of a cosmic glow | 5:31 PM ET | 10-19-2007

here is a quote from Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services responding to the following statistic:
The percentage of middle school students in Maine who reported having sexual intercourse dropped from 23 percent in 1997 to 13 percent in 2005, according to the Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

"Thirteen percent is still more than one in 10 students," Birkhimer said.

Really?

Apparently Ms Birkhimer passed her math classes on the way to nursing school.

There is as much a problem in what our children are being taught IN class, compared to what they are learning during recess.

Sent by tim | 7:52 PM ET | 10-19-2007

A birth control pill, "a key to have sex anytime and with anyone without worries or responsibilities". What's next a diet pill? Since we have and obesity problem. What the heck anyway the school is not paying we are. And also where are the parent of these young kids? Why not make them pay for the pills? This is what happens when you take out God from schools.

Sent by Hector Bonilla | 10:14 PM ET | 10-19-2007

We would request the Maine school board to reflect more carefully and fully on the implications of this sort of policy and decision, the message it sends, and the behaviours it implies is fine, normal, and expected among youth of any age, what to speak of children so young. We truly must give our Nation's youth the understanding that they need not blindly follow what seems to be the common culture for behaviours. Please do reflect. Please do think this through. Children and youth really can understand the importance of and meaning of remaining abstinent when given the proper guidance and instruction. Among the greatest gifts to them would be the loving patience to share and convey such teachings, coaching, and instruction.

Sent by vinita | 1:20 AM ET | 10-20-2007

Board Approves Birth Control at Middle School

"On Wednesday, school board members approved a plan to make prescription birth control available to students as young as 11 at King Middle School's health center starting either this year or next. The move comes after a number of pregnancies in the city's middle schools."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/10/board_approves_birth_control_a.html

Comment: This is not the way to deal with this problem, 11yr old youths need to be guided in a correct direction and the corrupt element needs to be removed, or the 11yr olds needs to be removed from the corrupt element. If the Schools are the problem they should be closed 'for remodeling' ...... Until New Rules are Issued and the new attendee signs a new agreement.

If Drugs are the problem, take away the Drugs! ---- Drugs such as 'Crack' and 'Speed' are 'mixed' with other chemicals to become Drugs.....take away the other chemicals.

Giving up and allowing 11yr old Sex when all other things has not been tried is a negative posture and an unacceptable plan of action.

Under state law, treatment is confidential. Students need their parents' permission to use the center, but they don't have to reveal why.

[State Law is suppose to protect under age children. period]

Portland School Committee member Lori Gramlich, who supported the measure, told Day to Day's Madeleine Brand that while she believes parents need to talk to their children about sex and.....

"that abstinence is the only form of birth control that is 100 percent effective",

[this is not what to say to children, "abstinence being 100 percent effective"?... Show those children the consequences of SEX ... both for their future and for their education. Dont you have any Videos? Try "Sex has a price tag" Video...

the reality is that not all children will follow that advice. So she says the board needs to "give them what they need to protect themselves."

Parents in Portland are split on the issue.....
Show the Parents the "Sex has a price tag" Video.
Regards.

Sent by Earnest Thompson | 1:49 AM ET | 10-20-2007

GROW UP!!!! They were having sex and becoming pregnant in my middle-class mostly white suburb of Connecticut in the 1970's.....My only objection is focusing on "birth" control and making it a female issue.It should be called "Death" control and both males and females should be targeted with condoms.Has no one on this blog been touched in any way by AIDS?

Sent by susan | 5:52 PM ET | 10-21-2007

It is appalling to me that my child's physician cannot dispense medication for any illness without my consent, but a school board would be allowed to dispense prescription birth control to my child without my knowledge. How has our world turned so upside-down? Middle school children are just that... CHILDREN! They are making decisions about having sex in the same way they make a decision about what to wear or whether to smoke. Because it's the "in" thing to do. I like Mr. Thompson's video concept. Show these kids the consequences of their actions BEFORE it's too late!

Sent by Martha | 6:18 PM ET | 10-21-2007

They're children!!! I can't understand the logic of these School Board (hippie?) members! The world is laughing at you and saying "Only in America" in many different languages, and not positively. You're sending the wrong message to the other kids. I grew up, lived and studied in a few different countries and was exposed to different cultures. When I was 11 (not long ago) Sex, drugs and/or alcohol were never part of the conversation. the ones that brought them up were seen as the "bad apples" "promiscuous" and were seen as "uncool". We had this mindset because of a combination of good parenting, education, religion, proper media exposure, understanding consequences and punishment. Nowadays, it's completely the opposite!
Don't just preach "Abstinence" when you don't take the time to explain and have a strong case when asked "Why"
Don't just preach that God and religion doesn't approve of "sex" but help understand the moral and spiritual purposes of it.
Don't complain about the media when you don't know what's going through your kids' I-pods, laptops or TVs.
Don't empower kids, they live under your roof and rules... etc. etc
There's a lot of work to do so let's stop trying to treat the wound with a tiny band-aid and try to fix the many social issues creating these problems and hopefully put all those Abortion clinics, Teen crisis and pregnancy centers and Pharmaceutical companies out of a job! (The only ones benefiting from treating and giving drugs & pills to an even younger "customer" base)

Sent by Romel - Swiss, Peru, US | 8:30 PM ET | 10-22-2007

Eleven, twelve and thirteen year old girls (the ones who will be given the pills) are CHILDREN! even as their little bodies are raging with hormonal confusion. Has anyone asked who the male partners are? Are they also eleven, twelve and thirteen year old boys? It is more likely that the males are older; often men. Hasn't anyone asked whether these female children are being exploited? What if they were bungee jumping without adult supervision? Or what if they were coming to school with bruises all over their faces? Wouldn't someone say there is a bigger problem here which adults need to deal with? Some things children are too young to handle alone. We, in the U.S., are horrified about stories of child marriage and or child prostitution in some developing countries. How is this different? These children are surely being neglected by both their parents and the school and they are being exploited by someone. Even in the days in our society when women were considered more to be the property of men than to be independent persons in their own right, the (for example) R.C. Church stated that a women had to be at least 14 years of age to marry. So it looks like we are going backward. Even in the response comments above only a few seem to have any concern for the well-being of the children. The bottom line is sex with an 11 year old is child abuse. Doesn't anybody care what kind of environment these children must be living in, how few options they must have in their lives? I remember when I was 11 and I know what I and all my friends were like. I have an 11 year old niece now who at one minute is wanting to wear make-up to school and the next minute is wrapping up baby dolls in blankets and putting them in shoe boxes. Just because children are reaching puberty at earlier and earlier ages (some as early as eight), doesn't mean that they become adults earlier. Throwing a pill at a problem is not a solution. Maybe try making smaller schools so that the families and teachers can get to know each other. In this country we think nothing of spending 10 billion dollars a month on war, but we want to just dump kids in a pile and tell them to grow up on their own. What kind of society is that?

Sent by Mary P. | 12:06 AM ET | 10-23-2007

If a 13 year-old boy has sexual intercourse with a 12 year-old girl, is that 'child abuse?' Should the boy be thrown in jail and labeled as a sexual predator for the rest of his life? What if it was the girl's idea? Throw her in jail? Should we throw the parents in jail for letting it happen? If you think that's ridiculous, I agree. That's how ridiculous these posts above saying that we shouldn't be giving middle school kids birth control options sounds to me. Some middle school kids do, as a point of fact, have sex with each other and can get pregnant or spread STDs/AIDS. And don't give me this crap about upbringing and morality. I recall from my middle school days that some of the most promiscuous boys and girls were from deeply religious families. The more they were told it was evil, the more they wanted it.

Sent by John R. Otten | 3:57 PM ET | 10-30-2007

Anyone wonder what the pills and patches will do to these kids bodies? The hormones are not even great for adults causing heart issues and increased risk of some cancers. Oh and Susan, it is a female issue unless there is a rape. It takes two to tango but it is the female that has the tube and the eggs. Without that the guy rubs one off. She is the final "yeah" that leads to babies.

That final yeah is also her final choice for those pro-choicers out there. Once she gives in and has unprotected sex her control over her body ends. The simbiant now growing inside is not "her body, her choice" but rather is along for the ride. Unless she wants to be a murderer she must allow the simbiant to grow until it can be fully seperated.

Sent by Better than pissedon | 8:47 PM ET | 11-01-2007

If they are not ready for the consequences of being sexually active. Like leading to a baby.. they should not be having sex. When the pill is so reachable for all students one will get on it and it will lead to telling friends they HAVe to do it. So more students will become sexually active through providing it so easily. Parents need to do their jobs and inform their kids about safe sex. Or better yet, the school can help reach the students too. A better choice would be to tell them if they wanted the pill to go to your doctor and get it, not the school! The doctor has a better knowledge of things like this and a PhD. They can get it confidentially also. So the school district should provide more information on where to reach out to and what to do if you are already sexually active.Why fight everyone, why not meet on civil terms making the school and parents happy in the end.
p.s. im a high school student and believe it or not, I have more knowledge about what middle schoolers are doing then parents. Everything has changed from parents days in middle school, the world is getting more corrupted each year.

Sent by Alexis | 1:58 PM ET | 02-21-2008