Birth Control Many Issues in the United

Birth Control

Many issues in the United States are divisive. Conservative politicians and voters are always at odds with liberal politicians and voters. It does not seem to matter what the issue is, there is always going to be a fundamental difference of opinion. One of these issues is whether to allow public schools to provide contraceptives to their students. It is a difficult problem that both conservatives who oppose the issue, and more centrist and liberal individuals who support it have not yet found an answer to. Since it is a fact that prophylactics almost completely eliminate sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies (Dailard; Knox), it is the given opinion in this essay that public schools should be allowed to continue the practice.

There has actually been broad legislation passed which has allowed the practice since 2007 in all United States public schools (Associated Press). In a poll, that several different media outlets published (Associated Press, Jon), the general feeling among citizens is that the practice is worthwhile. There are even admittedly conservative Christian adherents who agree that abstinence-only education is not working (Knox). Many people believe that this is not an issue for the federal government to get involved in, but those same people also believe that public school children (as young as eleven in some cases (Sanchez)), should be able to obtain contraceptives from the school nurse (Associated Press0.

The argument from the more conservative element is that parents should have the right to either give their children condoms or not (Jon). The belief is that schools take it upon themselves to provide the contraceptives which encourages very young children to have sex (Jon, Knox). While this may be true in a few very isolated cases, the evidence shows that teen pregnancies have gone down in recent years due to this provision from schools (Dailard). There has also been a decrease in the number of teen STDs. It should be left up to the parent, but only if the parent specifically forbids the child prophylactics and advises the school of that decision. Another part of this debate is that parents should be given a voucher option so that they can keep their children out of the offending schools (Jon). This may be a possibility, but it does not get to the fact that there have been decreases in teen pregnancies and STDs with the advent of public schools providing condoms.