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A Missed Opportunity For Shared Responsibility In Adolescent Contraception, Vasiliki Rahimzadeh

Journal of Adolescent and Family Health

The American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Adolescence recently endorsed IUDs as the clinical contraceptive method of choice among sexually active adolescents. This commentary highlights the ways in which these recommendations reinforce a gender normative notion that contraceptive responsibilities continue to lie squarely with young women, and now adolescent girls. It critiques the absence of guidance from the Committee regarding how to approach both sexual partners equally in discussions of contraception. The reflection also identifies paucity in how to address sexual health among trans/intersexed adolescents and those with complex sexual orientations. Such exclusion has adverse implications, inviting marginalization of young …