Birth Control Should Be Made Available In Public High Schools

I believe that birth control should be made available in public high schools. There are several reasons that I feel this way. The main and overarching reason is that it reduces teenage pregnancy and there are many reasons why reduced teenage pregnancy is a good thing. First of all, teenage pregnancy is an economic burden. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in 2010, taxpayers spent 9.4 billion on supporting teenage childbearing (Sifferlin, 2013). When this is broken down to the individual level, each tax payer contributes about $1,682 annually to support teenage mothers. For comparison, the average taxpayer pays about $3,505.05 on military and national defense annually (Elliot, 2015). What we pay to support teenage pregnancy is about a third of what we pay for national defense! Another reason I think that reduced teenage pregnancy is good is that it offers teenagers a chance to live their full lives. When teens have children in high school, they are less likely to complete high school or go to
According to scholars, most teenagers are aware of the risks of engaging in sexual activity such as getting a sexually transmitted diseases and/or becoming pregnant (DiSabito, 2014). Even though they know the risks, many will still have unprotected sex. For some teenagers, the choice to have unprotected sex comes from a lack of caring. In some instances, the personal fable comes into play and teenagers think that nothing can happen to them so they don’t bother using protection (Rathus, 2014). However, in other cases, teenagers don’t use birth control because they don’t have easy access to it (DiSabito, 2014). They may want to use it, but don’t know how to get it. High schools seem like a logical place to provide birth control to