Two weeks ago, the West Seattle Herald ran a front-page article on teen health centers located in some Seattle middle and high schools. It also addressed Planned Parenthood and teens' asserted rights to confidential birth control and abortions without the consent or knowledge of their parents or legal guardians.

Many adults likely consider these clinics, which offer confidential health care related to reproduction to be both undermining to their authority and condoning of teen sex. I'd like to set the record straight.

Teen health centers within some middle and high schools provide free and convenient medical care to those who might not otherwise have access to any. Their capabilities in providing and caring for the students far surpass the traditional two-to-three-day-a-week school nurse. If parents sign the consent forms given them at the start of the school year, the nurse practitioner is able to provide the student with full medical care. I recently received my hepatitis vaccine free of charge, compliments of my high school's teen health center. Matters relating to reproduction and mental health, however, can be treated without a signed parental consent form, as dictated by law.

Planned Parenthood (a non-profit organization with several area clinics) and the teen centers located in some Seattle schools offer care intended to teach and protect teens from sexually-transmitted disease, teen pregnancies and lives as teen mothers and fathers. Many parents don't know for certain whether or not their teenager has an active sex life.

The people behind Planned Parenthood and the legislated confidentiality laws (the laws that states teens may receive medical care for birth control without parental consent) know this. While charging large amounts for birth control and other contraceptives would only discourage teenagers (already strapped for cash) from using them, informing parents would turn away huge percentages of teenagers completely. Teenage girls might as well ask their parents for birth control. In most cases, that simply is not happening.

A number of parents might find that scenario more comforting, telling themselves that they would rather have their daughters come to them directly and that's why they don't support the confidentiality law. That may be true in some cases (I know my mom truly does feel that way), but based on my observations it seems too contrived to be true on a large scale. Parents don't want their teens having sex, period. The fear behind the concern is that the confidential and free access to birth control encourages teenagers to have more sex because the consequences can be easily alleviated.

The truth is teen sex happens - not necessarily in the mass numbers splattered across news headlines, but it does happen. It happened before confidential birth control and it continues to happen now. The difference is that the risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease has been, hopefully, reduced with the increased accessibility of health care.

Parents have lost some control over their teenagers' dealings with sex and contraceptives. The exchange, however, is the increased likelihood that more and more of teen trysts will be "safe."

Condoms are free, easily attainable, essentially confidential, and were quite available before the introduction of confidential birth control. These laws allow young women to finally gain back control by no longer having to depend upon anyone else for their safety. Anyone arguing against these laws but not against the easily available nature of condoms is being unfair.

Young women who do not participate in an active sex life but want to go on birth control for other health concerns or as a safety precaution may not want to broach the topic with their parents, fearing suspicions or even accusations. Parents can oftentimes be very paranoid, and daughters, especially if the parent-child relationship is shaky, do not want to deal with that.

Simply put, most teenagers do not feel comfortable approaching their parents about a topic let along a sensitive one - and sex is a very, very sensitive one. Planned Parenthood and the teen health clinics located in some local middle and high schools offer a less awkward way out for teenagers. I should think that parents would appreciate knowing that there is someone who can help their children when and where they can't or won't.

Kyra-lin Hom writes every other week in the Herald and can be reached at kl_hom@yahoo.com