Neil St. Clair failed to acknowledge key parts of the Portland School Committee’s decision to make birth control available at its middle school health clinic (“The Maine point: The pill for middle schoolers is a bad plan,” Oct. 23, p. 5). St. Clair writes that the school will now make the pill available for preteens without parental permission, but in order to attend the health clinic in the first place, a student must get written consent of her parents. Her health records are then confidential, but the preliminary consent gives parents a chance to open up a conversation about the girl’s need to use the clinic.

Furthermore, I take issue with St. Clair’s frequent references to the clinic “handing out” the pill. A girl who wants to receive contraception will still have to have it prescribed to her by the clinic’s doctor or nurse practitioner. She will be made aware of the consequences of side effects, skipping a pill and sexual activity — in other words, the “responsibilities of contraceptives” St. Clair worries she cannot comprehend. In addition, the only students who will be receiving these pills will be those who seek them out. Hopefully, the ones who have enough sense to seek contraception also will have thought about the consequences of such methods. Basically, every young girl at Portland Middle School will not be “handed” a pack of birth control and told she is now allowed to have sex.

Finally, St. Clair indicates that the effects of the pill on preteens are unknown and potentially harmful. The pill has been used safely by females of many ages for years, and the dosage of hormones in the pill is actually very low. And many doctors prescribe the pill specifically to younger teens for irregular periods, heavy periods, acne and mood swings. The effects of pregnancy at such a young age are much worse.

Frustratingly, St. Clair also fails to comprehend the environment of any girl who is having sex at a startlingly young age. These are typically not girls with parents (like St. Clair promises to be) who feel responsible for their daughters’ sexual education. Lacking proper education and parental involvement, at-risk girls are left to their own devices for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. At least when a school health clinic offers confidential contraception, the girl can get information she so desperately needs from someone who is in a position to help her rethink her decision to have sex. Most 20-year-olds have a hard time starting a conversation about sex with their parents, let alone a 14-year-old whose parents may very well be misinformed, abusive, unavailable or, frankly, unconcerned. St. Clair himself acknowledges that 17 middle schoolers in Portland got pregnant in the last few years. If just one of those students had prevented a pregnancy with the pill, I would feel the program was worth it. These girls may be too young to have sex, but they are much, much too young to have children.

Bailey Roese

CAS ’10