PORTLAND (AP) – Reporting of juvenile sexual activity by the city’s school-based health centers is likely to change.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson is questioning the reporting practices of the health centers following the Portland School Committee’s decision last week to offer prescription birth control at the King Middle School health center.

Maine law prohibits having sex with a person under age 14, regardless of the age of the other person involved, Anderson said. A health care provider must report all known or suspected cases of sex with minors 13 and under, she said.

“When it’s somebody under age 14, it is a crime and it must be reported,” Anderson said. “The health care provider has no discretion in the matter. It’s up to the district attorney to decide.”

Portland’s six school-based health centers had no formal policy on reporting sexual activity involving students under age 14, according to Douglas Gardner, director of Portland’s Department of Health and Human Services.

“Moving forward, we will report to the letter of the law,” Gardner said.

Laws regarding the sexual activity of minors is the latest issue to surface following the school committee’s 7-2 vote to allow health care providers to dispense prescription birth control at King Middle School, which serves students in grades 6 to 8, ages 11 to 15.

Andrew MacNeal, a lawyer with the Maine Medical Association, called Anderson’s interpretation of the law “conservative.”

“I might argue that the health care provider has more discretion in reporting abuse,” MacNeal said. “Always, a physician’s first obligation is to the patient.”

MacNeal and Gardner questioned whether strict reporting requirements might have a chilling effect on young people seeking health care.

But Anderson said doctors and other health care providers must follow the law.

“Either the law is going to be enforced or it needs to be changed,” she said. “I don’t think a law should be routinely violated.”