The Pros And Cons Of Birth Control For Minors

Olivia Wilson

Mrs. Gallos

English 3 Honors

April, 20 2016

Birth Control and Accessibility to Minors Birth control has always been a controversial topic, with very strong views on each side of the argument. But birth control for minors is an even more controversial subject. Many people think that giving birth control to minors will encourage them to be sexually active. While many other people think that they will be sexually active either way and so they should be provided with birth control.

On one side of the argument they are saying that birth control will encourage minors to engage in sexually activity. Many people are against it because of the dangerous side effects and also they believe that some forms of birth control actually cause abortions. “LARCs are associated with serious side effects, such as uterine perforation and infection. IUDs, specifically, can also act as abortifacients by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg” (LaCapria). These people have tried many different ways to

“Teenagers make decisions in the heat of the moment, and whether they have access to birth control or not doesn’t factor in” (Weiner).So they need to have access to birth control in order to be protected from pregnancy and STDs. Research has shown that many girls would not continue to use birth control if they had to ask their parents for it but almost all of them would still continue to be sexually active. Also not only does requiring teens to have parental consent put them at risk for pregnancy and STDs but it also puts them at risk with their families. Some teens have abusive or unsupportive families that they would not be able to talk to about that kind of thing. For example there are girls whose parents would kick them out for getting pregnant and it would not be safe for the kids in those kinds of situations to talk to their parents about