By Selenne Sevilla / Staff Writer
By Selenne Sevilla / Staff Writer
Distributing birth control on college campuses through vending machines is a controversial move but reasonable choice.
Having contraceptives on a college campus is relevant to a student’s success.
One reason why birth control should be on college campuses is that, although most parents deny it, students are engaging in sex.
In an article by Robin G. Swayer, the search shows that college students are sexually active.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 86 percent of college students nationwide have had sexual intercourse and that nearly one-third of college women attending four-year institutions have experienced a pregnancy,” Swayer said.
Everyone can defeat those odds by providing students with the knowledge and tools they need to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
The college’s intentions are not to make students sexually active, but to expose them to methods of safe sex.
Although one wants to persist students to delay in sexual activity and be abstinent, one must realize that one cannot control this situation.
One can only encourage students to be responsible about sex, but if they are sexually active, the responsible thing to do is to warn them about sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.
Ultimately it is the student’s decision.
Students are able to gain the tools they need to stop teen pregnancy and STDs from increasing.
With contraceptives being available to the students on campus, parents can be at ease that their student will be successful.
Another reason is that college campuses subsidize the price for students because oftentimes students do not have the money for emergency contraceptives; it also saves them the embarrassment of going down to their local health clinic or drug store.
“One university-based qualitative study established…that often students did not request (birth control pills) because they were embarrassed for having failed to use contraception in the first instance,” Swayer said.
According to this article, the student association wanted it “for privacy as to anything else.”
The article also specified that the contraceptive would be sold for only $25 a dose.
If students can find these contraceptives at a reasonable price, then the use of them would be more common.
Considering that students are the ones asking for this petition, then one should not be oblivious to the realities of college life.
College students are considered to be adults; therefore they are more aware of their decisions.
One should only support students to engage in safe sex and planned parenthood.
The idea of having birth control in college campus vending machines would be the right move because it would make students more aware of their overall health and future.
Giving students access to these contraceptives does not cause a problem with the rules associated with it because one must still provide a college ID confirming that the student is enrolled in the college, and is at least 17 years of age or older.
Therefore it is safely and securely distributed.