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When I first heard the news about King Middle School offering contraceptives to pre-teen girls I was livid. I imagined a school nurse handing out prescription drugs willy-nilly to any curious girl who walked through the door. I thought with horror of my own brief experience with birth control.

I was 23, married and had just suffered a traumatic miscarriage after a brief pregnancy packed with life-threatening complications. The pills nearly sent me over the edge. My most vivid memory is of sitting in a restaurant with my husband and being hit by a wave of despair so complete I was drowning in it. For no reason tears began flowing down my cheeks and into the salad. A few minutes later I was better. But over the next couple of days the despair returned again and again.

During that time I consulted with my husband, my mother, my mother-in-law, a friend and my doctor. I got off the birth control pills and the violence of the mood swings subsided. (Being a woman and still in possession of most of my hormones, I couldn’t get rid of them completely.)

I was appalled, however, at the thought that young girls, still adjusting to the changes of puberty would be subjected to the possibility of side effects similar to mine without being properly informed. Were people so desperate to push the notion of safe sex that they would endanger the mental well-being of children?

Then, however, I did a little research. I went to King Middle School’s website. (see http://king.portlandschools.org/) I read the letter written by the principal explaining the reasoning behind the decision to offer contraceptives. I read the policies of the King Student health center. What I found was not what I feared. It was much more subtle and disturbing.

As it turns out, the King Student Health Center was established in a partnership between the public schools, the Public Health Division, and Maine Medical Center. It had a a pediatrician, a nurse practitioner, a dental hygienist and clinic assistant. Students must have a signed parental permission slip before using the center services. Parents are encouraged to accompany their child on the first visit to the center. Thereafter, parents are welcome to come in with their child but they do not need to come when their child is seen. Parents are also welcome to call or come in to discuss their child’s health.

However, the duty that physicians have to share information with parents remains rather vague. It is clear that the records at the clinic are subject to the confidentiality laws that apply to other medical facilities. Records will only be released with written consent from a parent or legal guardian. Students are allowed to seek services for “reproductive health, mental health, or substance abuse without requiring parental notification.”

This is a glaring example of what is worst about public schools and government health care. The fact that a child can seek medical attention and a parent is merely invited into the proceedings as a removed, but potentially interested, party is appalling. And that the invitation is rescinded when the consultation involves such sensitive and personal issues as drugs, sex and metal well-being. It is a classic example of the devaluation of the role of parents and the family unit by government programs.

Now, I understand that there are parents who have no interest in raising their children. I understand their are parents who have a difficult time finding the time and money necessary to give their children all that they think they need. But in creating “laws” and “programs” and health center policies to cover for negligent or struggling parents simply undermines the rights and responsibilities of all parents. Nor do these programs ultimately help the children.

Unlike parents or a family, the government cannot provide the love, compassion, discipline or moral foundation that a child needs to become a stable adult. All too often we seem to be willing to trade in these fundamentals in order to allow the government to provide useful, but ultimately less important services like secular education or medical care.

Allowing a school to be a co-conspirator in handing out birth control, no matter how responsible the procedures in place for it’s distribution, is placing the role of school and government above the role of parents and family in the life of a child. While this may be the natural course of hierarchy in some dysfunctional families, it is not a position that any government agency should aspire to nor be allowed to claim under any circumstances.

This should be a dire warning to all who hold their children and families dear. This is merely a glimpse of what we will face if we allow Hillary Clinton or any other politician institute nationalized health care. At that point there will be no parental permission slip necessary. There will be no alternative to the government provided doctor. And the list of what the doctor is not required to share with parents will only grow longer and longer.

When I faced the horrible side effects of prescribed birth control pills, I turned to my parents and other members of my family. The relationship developed with my family was at least as valuable, if not more so, than the advice of the medical professionals. To rob our children of the opportunity to develop these relationships is inexcusable. And, as illustrated by King Middle School, all that is necessary for liberals to take this away from them, is for us to sit by and let them.

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