{"id":3397,"date":"2015-03-27T19:47:04","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T19:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3397"},"modified":"2015-03-27T19:47:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T19:47:04","slug":"advocates-push-for-birth-control-access-for-young-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3397","title":{"rendered":"Advocates Push for Birth Control Access for Young Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by Eric Galatas\/TNS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Reproductive health advocates are urging state lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow teen parents age 15 and older to get birth control without the consent of their parents or guardians.<\/p>\n<p>The House State Affairs Committee heard testimony Wednesday in support of the bill from State Representative Mary Gonzalez (D-Clint). Kelly Hart, Senior Director of Government Relations with Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, says the bill is critical to the success of young parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a state that has the highest rate of repeat teen birth,\u201d says Hart. \u201cOne child when you\u2019re under the age of 20 is difficult enough. Imagine having two. Imagine having three.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3398\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3398\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3398\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gr-45185-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"State lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow teen parents age 15 and over to get birth control without the consent of their parents or guardians. Photo: Parenting Patch\/Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"600\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gr-45185-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gr-45185-1-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gr-45185-1-1-405x302.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/gr-45185-1-1-120x90.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3398\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">State lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow teen parents age 15 and over to get birth control without the consent of their parents or guardians. Photo: Parenting Patch\/Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The bill is part of the multi-year Trust Respect Access campaign to give Texans access to the full range of reproductive health care. Critics have been quick to label the campaign as pro-abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Brook Randal, an emergency physician, says repeat and unplanned births among teens have been associated with higher levels of medical complications for mothers and infants. Hart says teens should be allowed to plan and space their pregnancies regardless of their age.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we trust these teen parents to make health care decisions for their infants,\u201d says Hart, \u201cwhy can\u2019t we respect them enough that they can make their own decisions about their birth control?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hart notes that access to birth control is an important part of reproductive health care for teen mothers and their families, and that Texas needs to adopt proven methods of reducing unplanned births, starting with improved access to contraception for young people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas\/TNS AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Reproductive health advocates are urging state lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow teen parents age 15 and older to get birth control without the consent of their parents or guardians. The House State Affairs Committee heard testimony Wednesday in support of the bill from State Representative Mary Gonzalez [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3399,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions\/3399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}