safe sexFast fact: did you know your teenager can walk into a doctor's office and ask to be treated for an STD, and no one has to tell you? Legally? And that's not all, my friends. A number of states are now offering our kids STD prevention services without a parent ever getting involved.

You don't have to be told, you don't have to approve! Isn't it great? What? You don't think so?

You aren't alone -- when USA Today slipped those fast facts into an article suggesting parents adjust how they broach "the talk" with their teens, parents were apoplectic. Being denied the right to weigh in on their kids' sex lives, it seems, is breaking down the "natural bond" between parent and child.

But the notification rules aren't there to deny parents' rights to parent. They're there to step in because too many parents fall down on the job.

Consider this: a kid whose mom or dad has taken them into the doctor's office for the HPV and Hepatitis B vaccines never ends up with either, which means she never ends up making a hidden doctor's appointment to seek treatment.

It gets better. Studies have shown if parents talk to their kids about condoms before their first sexual encounter, the kid is significantly more likely to use one. If parents wait until after their kid is already doing the deed, they're much less likely to wrap it. And what happens when you don't wrap it? Ding, ding, ding! They end up in the doctor's office begging for a prescription!

See? You have the right to weigh in! And if you exercise that right, you never have to worry about them walking out of a doctor's office with a prescription for antibiotics to treat that nasty case of the clap. No more hidden STDs. Whoa! So simple!

Do you care that your kid can get STD treatment without your approval?

 

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