Should High Schools Provide Contraceptives?

The Youth and Government program’s legislative branch requires students to address issues within their community and propose a bill that will communicate their concerns. In order to ensure that each delegate is able to argue and defend their own bill within their respective committee rooms, which consists of a smaller number of delegates. However, among the hundreds of bills proposed by the Texas YG legislative delegates, only a few are chosen to be presented in the House of Representatives. One of the bills that were presented to the House regarded free access to contraceptives and sexual education within schools. This bill author, Mike Christner, argued that high schools should provide contraceptives, such as condoms, birth control, and emergency contraception. It stated that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) will conduct periodic audits to confirm that these high schools are adequately providing contraceptives. The penalty for not complying is that
schools will lose 5% of their annual state funding for the next school year. Within the debate period, House members can turn in amendments in which the rest of
the delegates can vote on whether this amendment will be implemented into the bill. For instance, an amendment was presented regarding the removal of “Provision D” of the bill which stated that schools must provide education on the use of contraceptives and family planning. Although this amendment did not end up getting applied to the bill, it did provide insight on how this bill could be edited. Supporters of this bill addressed the issue of poverty amongst young parents and that with
the implementation of this bill, students will be better informed on this topic. In fact, Planned Parenthood states that “if used perfectly a birth control pill is 99% effective.” Moreover, Wang states that “it may be an effective strategy.” However, some opposers of this bill stated that this bill will encourage more teenagers to participate in more sexual intercourse and allow them to discreetly hide their acts from their parents. But what do you think? Should Texas High Schools provide contraceptives, such as condoms and birth control to their students?

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