Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will consider Wednesday.
The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing condoms as part of its reproductive health program since it opened in 2000, said Lisa Belanger, a nurse practitioner who oversees the city's student health centers.
If the committee approves the King proposal, it would be the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to some students in grades 6 to 8, said Nancy Birkhimer, director of teen health programs for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Most middle schoolers are ages 11-13.
Although students must have written parental permission to be treated at Portland's school-based health centers, state law allows them to seek confidential health care and to decide whether to inform their parents about the services they receive, Belanger said.
Proponents say a small number of King students are sexually active, but those who are need better access to birth control.
Of 134 students who visited King's health center during the 2006-07 school year, five students, or 4 percent, reported having sexual intercourse, said Amanda Rowe, lead nurse in Portland's school health centers.
"This is a service that is totally needed," Rowe said. "It's about very few kids, but they are kids who don't have the same opportunities and access as other students."
The percentage of middle school students in Maine who reported having sexual intercourse dropped from 23 percent in 1997 to 13 percent in 2005, according to the Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
"Thirteen percent is still more than one in 10 students," Birkhimer said.
The School Committee will meet at 7 p.m. in Room 250, Portland Arts and Technology High School, off Allen Avenue.
Robert O'Brien, who chairs the committee's policy subcommittee, said his panel has yet to discuss the proposal.
He declined to comment until after the matter has been aired.
The issue could stir controversy, as it has in the past.
"I'm personally fine with it, but I know some parents might not be," said Jennifer Southard, wife of City Councilor Edward Suslovic, who has two daughters at King. "I think information and access are good things. I would hope my children would come to me, but some students might not have that option."
The city's Division of Public Health, which made the birth- control proposal, operates seven health centers in Portland Public Schools in an effort to increase access to physical, dental and mental health care.
They are located at Portland High School, Deering High School, Casco Bay High School, King Middle School, West School special education program, and two elementary schools -- Reiche Community School and East End Community School.
The first centers opened in the high schools more than a decade ago, Belanger said.
There are 27 school-based health centers in Maine, 20 of which are funded and overseen by the state, including those in Portland, Birkhimer said.
There are more than 1,700 school-connected health centers in the United States.
One in four provides birth control ranging from condoms to prescription contraception, said Divya Mohan, spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
Last year, Portland's program cost about $500,000 to operate, including state and foundation grants, MaineCare/Medicaid and private health insurance reimbursements, and in-kind contributions of space and services provided by the city, Belanger said.
Of 2,877 students eligible to attend Portland's seven health centers last year, 1,261, or 44 percent, were enrolled. The center at King, which has 510 students, enrolled 134 students and tallied 266 visits last year, Belanger said.
The health centers at Portland High, Deering High, Casco Bay High and West School have provided prescription contraception as part of overall primary health care since 2003, Belanger said.
The King Student Health Center has provided condoms since it opened in 2000, along with counseling and testing for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, she said.
Contraception would be prescribed after a physical examination by a physician or nurse practitioner, Belanger said.
Types of prescription birth control available through the health centers include contraceptive pills, patches or injections, as well as the morning-after pill. Diaphragms and IUDs are not usually prescribed, she said.
Belanger said health center workers encourage students to tell their parents about their health center experiences, but by law they cannot compel students to do so or inform parents without the student's consent.
King is the only one of Portland's three middle schools with a health center, primarily because it has more students who get free or reduced-price lunch, Belanger said.
Moore and Lincoln middle schools don't have health centers, and their students are ineligible for treatment at the King Student Health Center.
Belanger said the top five reasons for visits to the health center last year were, in descending order: immunizations, physical examinations, sore throat, upper respiratory infection and asthma.
Nationally, the top five reproductive health services offered at school-based health centers were, in descending order: pregnancy testing, abstinence counseling, HIV/AIDS counseling, birth control counseling, and the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, according to the national assembly.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
Comment: The Big Pharma sharks will stop at nothing to get their pills into whomever they can. Never mind the associated risks that come with using birth control pills can have a more disastrous effect on a young woman's developing body.
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