School Approves Program to Give 13yo Girls Hormone-Altering Drugs Without Parents’ Consent

 While parental consent is typically required when a student goes on a  field trip or is subjected to a vision test in school, students as  young 13 years old are being prescribed birth control at a public school  in Washington D.C. and they could leave school with a prescription for  pills or a newly inserted IUD, without their parents ever being  notified. 

The program is currently happening at Anacostia High School, a public  school in D.C. that has around 450 students, 98.9 percent of whom are  African American. Only 1 percent of the students are proficient in Math,  and only 4 percent are proficient in English, according to the school’s  website. Midwife Loral Patchen, who runs the program at the school and is  responsible for administering pregnancy and STD tests, and prescribing  various forms of birth control to underage girls, told NPR that the goal is to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy. 

“I feel really good about the fact that we offer the full range of options and we have very very low removal rates,”  Patchen said, noting that the girls typically stick with the form of  birth control she prescribes for the remainder of their time in high  school. Patchen also provides prenatal care for young girls who are already  pregnant. 

While the information she is giving may be valuable, the fact  that parental consent is not required raises some serious red flags. A high school freshman, who is going already going through puberty,  could be prescribed birth control pills by Patchen, which will introduce  synthetic hormones into her system. Birth control pills have been shown  to come packed with a variety of side effects, including an increased risk of depression. 

According to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, an increased risk for “first  diagnosis of depression was found among users of different types of  hormonal contraception, with the highest rates among adolescents.” 

Another study revealed that for women who used birth control “the  risk of attempting suicide was nearly double that of women who had  never used contraceptives. The risk was triple for suicide. The patch  was linked to the highest risk of suicide attempts, followed by IUD, the  vaginal ring and then pills.” 

The idea that a young girl could be experiencing severe mood changes,  and depression that could lead to suicide, all while her parents had no  idea that she was taking pills that were directly affecting her  hormones, should concern every parent, whether or not they would approve  of their children taking the substances. 

While intrauterine devices (IUDs) have often been presented as a safer option, a report from the New York Legal Examiner noted that both the Paragard Copper and the Mirena IUD “have been linked with an increased risk of a serious brain injury called ‘pseudotumor cerbri,’” in which too much cerebrospinal fluid collects around the brain and symptoms resemble a brain tumor. 

The report also noted that IUDs have been linked to “uterine perforation, migration, bleeding, and pain,” and the United States Food and Drug Administration has received “more than 70,000 adverse event reports concerning the Mirena, and hundreds of women have filed lawsuits seeking compensation for injuries suffered.” 

While the goal of the birth control program at Anacostia High School is to decrease the rate of teen pregnancies, a recent study  from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rate  of teenagers who are sexually active is decreasing—but the rate of  teenagers who are showing signs of depression and attempting suicide is  increasing, especially among young girls. 

“The percentage of female students who made a suicide  plan increased significantly from 2007 (13.4 percent) through 2017 (17.1  percent),” the report said. 

While access to birth control may be encouraged by some parents, and  they have the freedom to decide to allow their children to use hormonal  birth control if they choose, the key point is that parental consent  gives parents the opportunity to act before it is too late if the birth  control comes with adverse symptoms or side effects. The fact that more  young girls are showing signs of depression and contemplating suicide  serves as a reminder that parents need to be more involved in their  children’s lives, not less.