There are a number of factors involving societal norms, legal issues, and personal beliefs that surround the debate on whether or not minors should need the consent of their parents to obtain access to birth control. Many of these aspects present issues that affect the problem on several levels. However, given the high cost and unfortunately high rate of teenage pregnancy in the United States, it is clear that something must be done to address the issue. It is my opinion that providing minors access to birth control without parental consent would reduce costs to them, their quality of life, and the quality of life of the potential children produced.
The cost of teenage pregnancy is high, for all parties involved. For society, this often means having to provide some support in the form of assistance with health care, proper nutrition, child care, and housing, because teenage mothers statistically have fewer resources, usually have little education, and in general will take a few years to be able to truly support themselves. This also often places a burden on family members, who must also contribute to support in varying ways. This often involves lost productivity for grandparents, who frequently are still of working age, as they must take time out to care for grandchildren when the mother is working or has commitments. Getting pregnant while still a teenager also reduces the likelihood of the father remaining in the picture long-term, also reducing the resources available to the mother. The mother will also often take longer to achieve certain life and financial goals which could benefit the family because of the extra time commitment of caring for the child. This could, say, delay the ability to get a university degree or technical certification which would lead to higher earnings. This, in turn, affects the child, who suffers from the fewer resources available to the family during their formative years.
The legal problem, here, of course, is that minors are minors and are not necessarily entitled to all legal rights in regards to decisions made about them. Yet in many states in the United States, minors don’t have much protection in the legal system after a certain age for certain crimes. While the Supreme Court decided in Roper vs. Simmons that the death penalty could not be applied to people under the age of 18, this did nothing to stop the many minors being charged as adults for varying crimes in many different states. We already make various legal exceptions to take away the rights of minors- why not also make legal exceptions to empower them in being able to make decisions about their own bodies and lives?
Having and raising a child is a serious commitment. It puts strain on a woman’s body, it takes up a lot of time, and it is a massive financial commitment. According to CNN Money, in 2011, it cost $226,920 to raise a child (Dickler, 2011). As noted, the costs to society of having usually poor and lesser-educated youth who would otherwise be building up a solid foundation to raise a child upon when the time is right are also massive. Minors must have access to birth control, at least in some form, with or without their parental consent. While ideally we would not like to encourage teenage sex, it’s an obvious fact that it happens. The Center for Disease Control notes that in 2011, 329,797 children were born to mothers between the ages of 15 and 19 (Center for Disease Control). That number would surely be much higher if a significant proportion of teenagers did not already use birth control with parental permission. What we need to do is look at ways of continuing to lower that rate to prevent societal problems. One major way we can do that is by permitting teens to have access to birth control, even without parental permission, and make sure that teens know that they have the option to use it to control their own bodies and reproductive health. This would go a long way toward relieving burdens imposed upon them, their potential future children, and society as a whole.
Works Cited:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Teenage Pregnancy”. Web. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/ on 2/21/2013.
Dickler, Jessica. “The Rising Cost of Raising a Child.” CNN Money. September 21, 2011.
Web. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/21/pf/cost_raising_child/index.htm on 2/21/2013.
