When you were twelve years old and you would come to school on Monday morning, what was the first thing on your mind?
Unfinished homework? Catching up with friends? How to spend your lunch money?
Here in England, apparently, a significant number of 12-year-old girls line up at the school nurse’s office to ask for the emergency birth control pill, aka the morning-after pill.
If, like me, you come from a country like the Philippines, you might be shocked. Even more shocking is the fact that this move is approved and supported by majority of school boards and health trusts in the country. And one more thing, the parents of these underage girls do not need to be informed that their daughters have been given the drug.
Moreover, in areas where such service is not available in schools, underage girls are able to get the pills from their local pharmacy. Under a very controversial government act, youngsters are just asked a few basic questions by the pharmacists before being given the pills.
Curbing abortion rates and preventing teenage pregnancy are the two primary reasons for the scheme. According to reports, England and Wales has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe. The biggest recent increase has been among under-16s.
The intentions are noble but as several critics have pointed out, the easy access to the emergency pills will not have any significant effect on the figures. They say it will only encourage promiscuous behaviour and will put very young girls at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Sure, the high teenage pregnancy rate in England should be a cause of concern. However, providing emergency pills to young people is like slapping a band-aid on a highly infectious wound. You are only providing a temporary solution and not treating the problem. If young people and their parents are made aware of the truth, reality and risks of teenage pregnancy and abortion, that might be a better solution which might just decrease the number unwanted pregnancies in the country. It sounds idealistic but we have got to stop being embarrassed to talk about touchy subjects like sex to our children. The more they are made aware, the more you are open to them about issues like that, the less they are likely to experiment behind your back.
This move by the government shows they are only interested in the statistics and in the numbers going down. It shows their lack of concern for the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of the young lives involved. If children are taught from a very young age that they can have casual sex and get away with it, what kind of adults will they turn into?
As a mother to a girl, I am concerned about how children are being initiated into adulthood at such a young age in this country. Children are children. They are not prepared for sex in all aspects.
A very wise man said, “Everything is permissible–but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible–but not everything is constructive.”
We live in an age where freedom is overrated. We may be free to do whatever we can, but we are not free from the consequences and the responsibility of what we have done.
This is what youngsters should be taught.
how? why? what?!! i am flabbergasted. honestly, i don’t know what to say.
whoa, it’s scary to raise a child in europe. and i’m already afraid for my unconceived child. but then again, the parents would have to play the biggest role of educating their own kids.
It’s really scary, isn’t it? I keep on thinking, twelve.. twelve.. I cannot believe little 12-year-old girls are going through this. It’s just so wrong.
12 year olds?! really? i am shocked!