ACLJ Wants Middle School Kids to Get Pregnant

I’m so sick of the Christofascist lawyers at The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) trying to force their views on to the rest of us.

Their latest target is a school district in Portland, Maine.

In a recent Press Release, the ACLJ claims that the school district plans to “administer prescription contraceptives ? including birth-control pills and patches ? to students between the ages of 11 and 15 without the consent of parents.”

According to Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ’s Chief Asshat, “This is a very troubling policy that clearly usurps parental rights and violates state law.”

That’s THEIR side of the story. And, just like every ACLJ story, this one is full of lies and misinformation.

The truth is much simpler and much less scary.

Students can not just walk into the health center and get prescription birth-control pills- they need parental permission to access the school’s health center.

The school is not breaking state law. As a matter of fact, existing state law requires the medical treatment be confidential- and the school health center would only be breaking the law if it DID inform parents about the specifics of the services their children received.

Still- I know sounds kind of crazy to give middle school kids birth-control.

But Portland’s student health center is not unique in their policy. According to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, 25% of all student health centers also dispense some form of contraception to middle school students.

Why isn’t the ACLJ sending threatening letters to all of those school districts?

It also seems worth mentioning that there have been 17 pregnancies reported at Portland middleschool in the last four years and this doesn’t include miscarriages or terminated pregnancies that were never reported to the health centers.

And, while we’d all like to see kids avoid having sex- we have to deal with the reality of the situation.

So I guess the question is: do you want to offer these kids birth-control? or do you want 13 year olds having babies?