Whether or not teenage girls should have access to birth control without parental consent is something that affects so many girls only a few years younger than myself. I am very interested in this research question because this is something everyone should have access to if they feel they need it. Many teenage girls I know did not have access to birth control because their parents would not allow them to get on it as they figured this meant that their teenagers were sexually active. However, many young women need to go on it for a variety of reasons such as regulating periods and menstrual cramps. I believe young women should have discretion when it comes to their bodies. Therefore, I think issues such as birth control should stay between doctors and their patients. I grew up in a family that was very open and willing to allow me to go on birth control but I have seen first hand what happens when parents will not allow their teenage daughters to go on it. I am qualified to write about this topic because this is something that I have experienced and it continues to affect people I know and other young women across America. Proposals are being introduced for parental notification or consent before purchasing or using contraception, but putting these requirements into place could prove to cause more problems than intended as well as an increase in teen pregnancies.

In the study conducted by Madeline Zavodny in "Fertility and Parental Consent for Minors to Receive Contraceptives", she claims that making parental consent mandatory causes young women to change their behavior regarding contraceptives which leads to an increase in pregnancies and births among young women. She supports this allegation by analyzing the number of births in an Illinois county that imposed a parental consent requirement compared to its surrounding counties that did not require parental consent. This article addresses the risk of teen pregnancy and how making consent for contraception mandatory affects teenage girls and their decision to get birth control. It also considers parents and whether or not requiring consent will promote parents to take the opportunity to have a conversation with their daughters regarding safe sex. Dr. Zavodny's study was published in the American Journal of Public Health which is a leading peer-reviewed journal in public health research. Dr. Madeline Zavodny, the author, is a renowned professor of economics that is frequently featured at conferences and has dozens of research publications regarding immigration, fertility behavior, and the minimum wage. Her credentials and graduation with a Ph.D. from M.I.T. verify that she is highly knowledgeable and experienced in what she does.

The multiple authors of "The influence of individual characteristics and contraceptive beliefs on parent-teen sexual communications: A structural model" allege that communication between parents and teenagers regarding sex directly corresponds to the parent's beliefs about contraception. Economic background, ethnicity, political viewpoints, and religion all contribute to the parents' position on contraception which all together determine how much the parents communicate with their teenagers. The data from this experiment was displayed in multiple charts and graphs that were easy for the reader to follow. This article identifies the fluctuating levels of communication for a variety of reasons. By showing this, the article is discrediting the argument that it is best to have parental consent for contraception so teenagers can talk to their parents. However, this article shows that the communication between parents and their teenagers is very inconsistent. This article was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health which is a well known peer-reviewed journal with publications from scholars in fields regarding adolescents and young adults. Publishing this article in a journal specializing in young adults, supports that the communication between parents and their children is important to the health of teenagers. The three co-authors have each written other research studies, similar to this topic, that have been published in reliable journals. Additionally, each author either has their Ph.D. or their Master's which establishes their credibility as educated authors that are experienced in this field.

This article posted by the Guttmacher Institute argues how critical access to contraceptives is to adolescence. It claims that using contraception prevents young women from getting pregnant thus averting the health and social consequences that are associated with teen pregnancy. Estimates of efficiency of contraceptives and data regarding contraceptive practices were utilized to estimate the number of pregnancies that were averted by birth control in order to show how beneficial it is. This article is portraying how effective and useful birth control is for adolescents. This article is trying to increase the popularity of contraception among teenagers to avoid many accidental pregnancies that occur to people in this specific age group. By being published in Family Planning Perspectives, now the Guttmacher Institute, it is evident that this is a valid source as it was published in a journal focused on reproductive health. The authors of this piece are all nationally credited and experienced writers. However, there may be a bias regarding teen pregnancies as a group focused on reproductive health would probably support birth control as a quick fix.

This research question is arguable because depending whether you are looking at the point of view of a parent or from that of a child, there will most likely be different opinions regarding teenage access to birth control without consent from a parent. From the three sources I found, all of them agreed that birth control is an effective contraceptive that should be accessible to teenagers. The different perspectives from the sources helped me gain insight into other view points but it helped make my argument stronger. Regarding the sources I used I believe they were very effective, however in the future I would like to add variation by finding different instances in which young girls were deprived of access to birth control and how this affected them. I would also like to find a source that argues against giving birth control to teens without parental consent as a reference to the different argument and I could refute the points made in the opposing argument. As for now I am content with the research question I am using but I am unsure if it is too broad of a topic so I would like to see how I could narrow this down. I was thinking about possibly looking at the way parents and teens communicate about sex and then tying that into the conversation about birth control and parental consent.
