From the age of 14 and a half to fifteen and a half, I was on birth control pills – Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, to be exact. I went off it at fifteen, and recently decided, once again, to put myself on it. It wasn’t too hard to do, because my periods are awful (quite often, I have cramps that basically paralyze me from the abdomen down.
Ok, now I agree that contraception should be readily available at all levels, and for an attempt at that I applaud this school board. However, I think in the case of middle schoolers such efforts should be left at providing them freely and confidentially with condoms. The birth control pill, from what I understand of it, is too risky to take for a young girl just barely beginning puberty. Condoms have been given out at this school for something like 7 years, and I think that that is a good policy that should remain in place; but providing middle school girls wth drugs reaches a whole new level. Many at that age have issues remembering their class schedule and to do their homework, how could they be expected to be able to responsibly take this drug as instructed? It working, I believe, with this age seems highly unlikely.
