To meddle between parents and teens on matters of sexuality is to tread on dangerous ground. The proof is the outrage many expressed last fall on learning that the health clinic at the King Middle School in Portland may have been prescribing birth control pills to girls as young as 14. Sen. Doug Smith, R-Dover-Foxcroft, tried to submit a bill that would have mandated that parents be notified if their minor children were being given birth control pills. The Legislative Council ruled – Democrats carrying the vote – that the bill did not need to be heard in this short legislative session. The issue, however, won’t go away so policymakers must be prepared for further discussions.

Most parents can imagine the anger they would feel at learning someone at school had prescribed birth control pills for their daughter without consulting them. Getting birth control pills either confirms that the teen is having sex, or it removes an obstacle for the girl to become sexually active. The parent, who may have believed the girl was not sexually active, and also may believe teens should not be having sex, has been frozen out of the discussion. Not a happy place for a parent to be.

In this scenario, Sen. Smith’s bill makes sense. Ideally, parents should be the primary source of information for their children on sexuality. But in this less-than-ideal world, policymakers wrestle with balancing the rights of parents to guide their children to adulthood with the public good.

As a society, we’ve been down this road before. When sex education came into school curriculums, there was a similar debate. Then, many schools began to make condoms available to teens. Reasonable parents may see this as giving a green light to sexual activity, but the reality of teen pregnancy and the threat of life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases had to be considered.

Sen. Smith’s bill dealt with a more serious issue: the prescribing of a body-altering substance. The bill would have covered those 14 and younger. Under current regulations, children who are 14 and older have a right to expect confidentiality from physicians and other health care professionals.

And with good reason. Dr. Erik Steele, who pens a column for the Bangor Daily News, said if a 14-year-old asks for birth control pills, he will ask about sexual activity. If the partner is a parent, coach, teacher or other authority figure, or is five years or more older, he is obligated to alert the state Department of Health and Human Services, which investigates. If the partner is a 15-year-old boyfriend, Dr. Steele – and most physicians, he said – will discuss sexually transmitted diseases and other concerns.

Adolescents often will confide in trusted teachers, adult friends and grandparents what they won’t tell parents. The physician confidentiality law is designed to remove barriers to a teen coming forward, Dr. Steele said. “The child in greatest jeopardy is one who doesn’t come forward to anyone,” he said.

If Sen. Smith’s bill is introduced in the next session, the debate on these difficult issues will return. As Dr. Steele said, “If you can’t see both sides of this, you’re not thinking hard enough.”