I’ve written about the local controversy regarding the Portland School Board’s recent vote to allow the Health Center at King Middle School to provide birth control to students who range in ages 11 to 14. It’s been in the national news quite a bit thanks to outraged conservative talk show hosts like O’Reilly and Glen Beck even though King Middle School won’t be the first middle school to offer oral birth control — schools in Boston and Seattle have had successful teen-pregnancy-rate-reducing programs for years, as I’ve mentioned before.
Now we’re in the national news again. A D.C.-based, Christian law group started by Pat Robertson, the American Center for Law & Justice has given the Portland School Board an ultimatum — reverse the new policy or they are going to sue supposedly on behalf of the student’s parents. The legal group did say that they would accept a compromise if the board would ensure that only students ages 14 and up have access to the birth control and only with written permission from their parents.
As a local, I admit to being tee’d off that they’re butting their noses into a local affair.
And not only can the board not afford a lawsuit, having used it’s budget for the year, but apparently, their vote was only a “courtesy vote” to begin with; the Health Center is owned and run by the City, though it’s located in King Middle School for the express purpose of making free health care available to young people who might not otherwise get it. The Health Center had made the decision to provide birth control based on the fact that patients/students have asked for it. That doesn’t seem like anyone is pushing the birth control on the kids, does it? In fact, as we’ve already discussed, the Health Center counsels abstinence and will continue to do so once the program is in place.
So, suing the School Board will make no difference in the policy because it’s really not their policy to make or change. The policy comes from the City-run Health Center. The ACLJ has been told this, but the legal group is determined to make the School Board an example as I heard in an interview on NPR last night. This pigheadedness just serves to make the ACLJ look more like overzealous Pharisee attack dogs guilty of oversimplifying the issue and refusing to even try to look at the big picture.
In fact, if they have such a problem with birth control in Middle Schools, are they also going to be filing lawsuits in Boston and in Seattle? If they don’t, it’s awfully hypocritical of them. After all, if it’s a sin in Maine, it must be a sin everywhere. If they are truly trying to protect our children and not just get their faces in the paper and on t.v., they’d try to protect all of our children.
Meanwhile, this Christian Mainiac wishes they’d butt out and go back to D.C. Certainly there’s enough sinning going on their to keep them busy.
Recommended Reading: Christian group may sue schools (Portland Press Herald)
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