Should Teenagers Get Their Parents' Permission To Obtain Birth Control Information and Contraceptives?

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10 May 2007

Should Teenagers Get Their

Parents' Permission

To Obtain Birth Control Information and Contraceptives?

Parents of teenagers, teenagers of parents: There has never been a clearly defined position for either during this volatile period that both parent and teen forge through. Parental involvement related to teenage sexual health issues are among the most incendiary debates in America today. Inevitably, a family confronts this issue at home.

As it involves sexual health, sexuality, and intimate relationship, this topic can be difficult, confusing, and embarrassing for teenagers and their parents, causing for other than healthy discussion and supportive parenting. Therefore, teenagers should have the right to obtain birth control information and contraceptives from professional and reputable non-profit organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, without any requirement to get parental permission.

Those who champion the idea that laws should require teenagers to involve parents in matters of sexual health often term parental-consent as parental authority. Proponents of parental authority laws tend to focus conveniently on a single point, as if there were only a single star in the heavens - themselves. They seem to be blind to the rest of the stars that make