Health
Young girls & birth control pills
How young is too young for birth control pills? 13? 15? What do you think?
We here at AIDS Response Effort, Inc. spotted an intriguing story that caught our attention. We decided to blog about it. So, how young is to young? My wife & I don’t have children so it’s hard for me to answer. If we did have a daughter, I know my wife would have her on the pill on or before the age of 13. She notes back to what happened in her school & to her friends growing up that precautions need to be taken for unwanted pregnancies. When I was in grade school to high school, most of my friends were sexual active at some level & girls got pregnant before graduating. Its still happening.
Just looking again at our local high schools here in Winchester, VA (noted in former blogs) that our city is among the highest HS pregnancy rates in the State of Virginia.
- Thomson Reuters study released this past March reported that 18 percent of girls ages 13 to 18 were on some form of oral contraceptive in 2009. These figures represent a 50 percent increase in birth control prescriptions since 2002 — a mere seven years earlier.
- approximately 750,000 teen pregnancies occur each year in the United States, many of which are not intentional. And as of 2009, 46 percent of high school students reported being sexually active.
Those statistics shows”abstinence only’ does not work. Parents need to think back to when they were young & their early sexual experiences. Most hope their children won’t follow their choices but with technology today, Internet, movies, TV shows that glorify pregnancy its like the world is bursting at the seams. I was too young during the 60′s “Free Love” and ”hippie” days but that was a sexual revolution. It seems to be happening again but on a much larger scale. The Commonwealth of Virginia still hangs onto abstinence only policy which hasn’t worked. Sexual activity leads not only to possible pregnancy but exposure to STI/STD’s and even HIV infections if the person takes unprotected risks. With ARE’s Health Presentation Classes for younger audiences we stress abstinence; but if not, to be careful, protected and cautious from what’s out there to catch. The elephant is in the room but no one see’s it….We try to educate….
tom thayer
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/teens-birth-control_n_906994.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
Tagged abstinence only, AIDS Response Effort Inc, ARE, birth control pills, birth control prescriptions, females, free love, high school girls, hippies, HIV infections, parents, pregnancies, sexual revolution, STD, STI, The Pill, unprotected sex, Virginia pregnancy, young girls
