Johnson, Leah: Teens and Contraception

            In the first article, the author presented the idea that parents are more likely to accept doctors giving teens less effective contraceptives as opposed to more effective longer lasting contraceptives. Even though the risks for STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and pregnancies are higher when the less effective contraceptives are used parents still preferred those methods. In this article one reason why parents accepted the less effective methods was because they didn’t want to admit to themselves that their children were sexually active. Another reason was that an incident with the Dalkon Shield might have scared the parents into not wanting to take a similar risk with their teens. However, Cori Baill commented, “parents need to understand that the risk of pregnancy outweighs the risk of any contraceptive method” (1^st article, paragraph 6).

            The second article presented studies to show the effectiveness of both types of contraceptives presented in the first article. According to one study only 4.5% of women currently chose long lasting contraceptive methods even though they were proven safe and appropriate. The majority women chose short term contraception methods, such as condoms and birth control pills, even though the rates for pregnancy for those were higher. Another study done in 2007 showed that 42% of teens between 15 and 19 years old have already had sex and almost all of them used some form of contraception. However, the majority of those chose a less effective method. Yet another study showed younger women and women over 20 were more likely to use a less effective contraception method. The unintended pregnancy rates were shown to be 22 times higher in women that chose a less effective method. The committee that put these studies together acknowledged that “lack of familiarity, misperceptions, high cost, lack of access, and healthcare providers’ concerns” were the barriers that stopped younger women of using the longer lasting contraceptive methods (2^nd article, paragraph 11). And a study to remove those barriers showed that women would then choose the longer lasting methods.

            Both articles were trying to convey to their audience the effectiveness and noneffectiveness of  long lasting and short term contraceptive methods.