Poll: Most approve of public schools providing contraceptives

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — People decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students, but they also voice misgivings that divide them along generational, income and racial lines, a poll showed.

Sixty-seven percent support giving contraceptives to students, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. About as many — 62 percent — said they believe providing birth control reduces the number of teenage pregnancies.

"Kids are kids," said Danielle Kessenger, 39, a mother of three young children from Jacksonville, Fla., who supports providing contraceptives to those who request them. "I was a teenager once and parents don't know everything, though we think we do."

Yet most who support schools distributing contraceptives prefer that they go to children whose parents have consented. People are also closely divided over whether sex education and birth control are more effective than stressing morality and abstinence, and whether giving contraceptives to teenagers encourages them to have sexual intercourse.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/5264010.html

[Demeter]

1. I'd MUCH Rather Have Universal Government Paid Health Care

Handing out condoms and pills like bandaids is not doing a proper job.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

3. Agreed. But even with that some kids wouldn't go to the doc w/o a parent

And they won't ask for prophylactics in the presence of a parent.

I, personally, believe that sex-ed and free condoms should be available to all teens.

[bunkerbuster1]

4. Indeed--hyped stories like these are distractions

(Not a knock against the original poster for posting it, mind you.)

But it's useful to think that every time you hear a "birth control in schools" story, it's probably been hyped by someone to keep you from thinking about supporting a single-payer system, and thinking instead about big, bad government schools over-riding the wishes of decent parental folk.

[NotGivingUp]

2. Totally disagree. It's not the school's place to provide contraceptives.

Everybody should pay for their own.

[rodeodance]

5. Parents have an op-out letter.

[Hekate]

7. Think about what you just said. Please. "Pay"? Preventing disease and pregnancy in kids is...

...worth the small amount it costs to deliver the means, versus the enormous amounts of money it takes to patch them up later.

It's interesting that so many adults actually agree that school nurses should be empowered to help kids this way, while those claiming to be religious and righteous oppose it.

I mean, we're all shocked -- shocked!!! -- that teenagers could be having sex. And appalled -- appalled!!! -- that they don't plan ahead. And baffled -- baffled!!! -- that those same teens either don't have or don't save up the money to pay for their own birth control. And shocked -- again shocked!!! -- that they don't confide in their parental units.

Just my plea for pragmatism.

Hekate

[NotGivingUp]

8. I thought about it BEFORE I said it. n/t

[Occulus]

11. I'm so glad my sister paid for her contraceptive implant

She got pregnant anyway. In her defense, she calls herself a 'fertile Myrtle" and, in her words, has since "gotten fixed".

Three kids, easy labor each time. She knows she's built to have 'em and she's not having any more.

I don't much blame her.... and between her husband's first daughter, and then these three girls, I don't blame him for not putting up a fuss.

Four is enough!

[AX10]

6. It's a better option than abortion.

[WindRavenX]

9. Simply put, this should be a health issue and not a moral issue.

If teenagers are having sex--and teenagers in middle school frequently are--then it is in the best interest of public health to have contraceptives and judgment free reproductive health access available.

Parents are responsible for the moral aspect of this. Not the schools.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. I am strongly in favor of this,

When I became sexually active the LAST thing on my mind was talking about it with my parents who I was quite confident would murder me if they found out.

I was more afraid of what my or her parents would do than disease of pregnancy.

Her older sister was sneaking her the pill and at that age the only STD I had heard of was AIDS and I like most people at the time believed only homosexuals could get it.