Sixth Graders and the Birth Control Pill

Do you think the birth control pill should be handed out to 6^th graders? What about 7^th and 8^th graders? There is a middle school in Maine doing just that. A complete range of contraceptives will be available to students attending the middle school. That will be the sixth grade students through the eight grade students.

Students will need to have an exam first, and their parents permission to be treated at the student health center. But the services the student gets at the health center does not need to be disclosed to the parents under state law.

Debating will be furious among parents and educators undoubtedly. There are health factors and moral issues that will be argued, as well as debates over school's overstepping their bounds and interfering with parent's authoritative roles.

Can starting the pill at the young age of 11 be harmful to a girl's health? Will making birth control easily accessible to children in middle schools promote sexual behavior, or help to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases in students that will have sex regardless of having birth control or not? Should parents be told if their child receives contraceptives from their school's health centers?

Should more options be available for students, even those in sixth grade, that are thinking of having sex ? Will providing students contraceptives help them make informed decisions that will protect their health? And are parents simply burying their heads in the sand, so to speak, rather than deal with the reality of their children having sex at an earlier age? Will children, even at age 11, decide to have sex without contraception anyway, and risk pregnancies and disease because they did not have protection?

What do you think? Should Middle Schools be allowed to give out contraceptives to students in the sixth through eight grades?