First, the need for sexual education programs hides many of the costs of the Norplant birth control for Consenting Teens policy by shifting them to the education programs. Thus the savings the Norplant birth control for Consenting Teens program would generate would not necessarily be as great as it first appears.

The second fault with the Norplant birth control for Consenting Teens policy requiring better sexual education is more insidious. Since parents place a prodigious amount of pressure on schools to avoid or limit sexual education, sex has become a taboo topic among public schools. If the general attitudes in the United States changed, schools would be more likely to implement a sexual education curriculum. Consequently, since teenage pregnancy rates go down proportionately with a country’s openness to talk about sex related issues, the teenage pregnancy rate will already be on the decline as the sexual education courses increase. The increase of sexual education programs will also decrease the number of teenage pregnancies. Norplant Birth Control is no longer available in the United States, as of 2002. Therefore, once Norplant birth control for Consenting Teens is established, the sexual education and the greater openness in society may have already dropped the teenage pregnancy rate to an acceptable level. Ironically, one of the key successes to Sweden’s low teenage pregnancy rate is not necessarily their sexual education programs, but that the society does not try to deter teenagers from sexual behavior and that the citizens are relatively open to discuss sexual topics.

Since we do not live in a perfect world, the likelihood of increasing the access, frequency, and quality of sexual education in the United States in the immediate future is very low. A Norplant birth control for Consenting Teens program could do some good in family planning clinics that counsel teenagers. The program would be more effective than current programs to reduce teenage pregnancy. However, in order for the program to succeed, it needs to increase its accessibility for teenagers. This requires comprehensive sexual education programs in public schools, for offering Norplant birth control as an option without providing sex education would limit teenagers’ knowledge of the contraception and of its availability. This has deterred the usage of the contraceptive in the past. Ironically, once the environment in this country allows for the education required for the Norplant for Consenting Teens program to succeed, teenage pregnancies will probably not be the dire issue that it is today.