Birth-Control Teaching Urged

All teenagers, not just those who are sexually active, should have knowledge of and access to contraceptives in order to prevent adolescent pregnancies, the American Academy of Pediatrics argues. The policy paper, which appears in the July issue of Pediatrics, updates the group’s 1998 recommendations, which encouraged doctors to provide abstinence counseling to all adolescents and to limit contraceptive counseling to sexually active teenagers.