An Oregon school district is providing prophylactics to sixth-graders:
Gervais is a town of about 2,500 people north of Salem, near Woodburn. Superintendent Rick Hensel said he and the board are concerned about teen pregnancy because nine students got pregnant this year, including one middle-school girl. That added up to about 5 percent of the girls in grades six through 12 in the small school district.
Marcotte endorses the plan:
The fear, of course, is that obtaining a condom will inspire kids to go looking for sex, much like discovering the ring of power sent Frodo on a multimovie trek to Mordor. But while it’s easy to overrate the erotic powers of a condom in theory, an extensive research project involving nearly 10,000 women and teenage girls in St. Louis found that giving women access to free contraception did not compel them to seek out new sexual partners. It did, however, significantly lower the rates of unintended childbirth and abortion. The American Academy of Pediatrics concurs, arguing that while condom access does not increase rates of sexual activity, it does increase rates of condom use for kids who do have sex.
The Dish 