October 18th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I wonder sometimes if social liberals in Portland, Maine, hate sex, or perhaps don’t realize that they do.
Sure, one could argue that those pursuing the city’s health officials dispensing birth control pills to 11-year-olds potentially without the knowledge of parents might be seeking to grant that pleasure to everyone.
But what of the effects? How jaded are some of these kids going to be, sexually active for six or seven years before they graduate from high school? The fun and bonding spent in honeymoon, wasted on another kid or worse, a pedophile?
The city’s residents should be outright offended that their tax dollars are being taken from them to promote risky behavior. Even if a girl needs hormonal regulation for a medical condition, that is the responsibility of the parents.
We recognize that kids do not have the maturity of adults. You have to be 25 to rent a car on your own name. 21 to drink. 18 to vote and serve in the armed forces. Then someone decides that 11-year-olds can be mature enough to govern something so life-altering as sexual intercourse? You can be expected to handle sex at less than half the age people expect you to handle renting a car?
We need not excite in children desires that are still difficult to govern in adults.
If a couple is having sex they should protect that behavior in a monogamous marriage, even if they are young. The risk of disease transmission, pregnancy without two committed parents, and the emotional harm of the breakup of sexual partners drastically reduces the chance of those people realizing the full benefits of the institution that God has set for us.
That’s why I say they hate sex. Sex can be done in such a way that both partners will be happy with each other for a very long time. By exciting these children and saddling them with adult responsibilities, they ruin sex for these people when they are mature enough to handle it.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
October 18th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
This brings up all kinds of issues, not the least of which is the legality of the age of consent. The legal age of consent in Maine is rather vague, depending on which portion of their law you read. In some places, it says the legal age is 14, and in others it’s 12.
Regardless, giving birth control pills to 11-year-old girls could be seen as aiding the delinquency of minors. It could also be seen as giving a hand-up to older boys who think that because their younger girlfriends are able to get the pill without her parents’ knowledge, they can do whatever they like with them.
Also, birth control pills do not provide 100 percent protection from pregnancy, and they don’t protect at all against sexually transmitted diseases. Getting an STD is bad enough, especially if it’s something that can’t be easily treated with medication, or can’t be cured. But girls that young who get pregnant can have very, very serious health problems as a result — including an increased risk of death during childbirth or shortly thereafter.
I really wonder how closely the Maine school district is looking at these issues, and whether they’ve considered that parents might decide to sue them for providing prescription medication to their minor children without consent, contributing to the delinquency of minors, and basically laughing in the face of Maine law that says that children of that age aren’t legally able to consent to sex.
It doesn’t really matter that birth control pills can be prescribed for other medical reasons besides birth control. This is a serious issue, and, in my opinion, a serious misstep in the governing of this school.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Yeah, but just think how great this is for old uncle who has the hots for his 13 year old niece?
By removing the stigma of pregnancy, are we not taking one more step toward our children becoming (especially girls) sex toys?
The problem is not that young girls need birth control, but that we as society need to protect them from sexual predators.
In the end, all that birth control does is hide the problem. And this is what is so incredibly sad about what Maine is doing.