School-based health centers and the birth control debate.

With their numbers on the rise, school-based health centers are an important source of counseling and medical care for low-income and uninsured youth. Controversy over family planning services has had a significant impact, however, and many centers remain limited in their ability to meet the needs of sexually active teens by dispensing contraceptives to them on-site. At the same time, a number of school-based health centers that are committed to reducing teenage pregnancy and improving teens’ reproductive health are working within their communities to overcome opposition to the provision of contraceptive care—and they are meeting with some success.