A task force has recommended that Denver high schools offer birth control, according to the Los Angeles Times. The school board has not formally considered the recommendation, but the proposal has stirred the debate about whether schools should provide contraception and, if so, whether parental consent should be required.

Denver’s teen birth rate is “more than double the statewide rate of 24.3 births per 1,000 girls age 15 to 17, and Denver school officials are considering a proposal to dispense contraceptives in its six high-school-based health clinics, which serve the district’s most impoverished students,” according to the article.

Opponents say the easy availability would encourage youngsters to have sex.

Proponents counter that sexually active teens should have as much access to birth control as possible.

Recently, a Maine school decided to offer birth control to middle schoolers, leading to controversy and widespread publicity. But most of the country’s school-based health clinics do not dispense contraceptives, according to a spokeswoman for the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care quoted in the L.A. Times article.

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