PORTLAND (AP) – Enrollment at a Portland middle school’s student health center has declined following a controversy over last October’s School Committee vote to allow the center to provide prescription birth control to sexually active students.
Officials say 126 of the 510 students at King Middle School are enrolled in the center, down from 193 in November.
Students need parental permission to be treated at the center, but reproductive health services are confidential under state law and students decide for themselves whether to tell parents about the care they receive.
Raejean Webber said she decided not to enroll her daughter, a seventh-grader, in the health center. Webber said she’s worried about being excluded from her child’s health care decisions and questions the safety of providing prescription birth control to minors, especially without informing parents.
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