<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Dear Dr. Kate, I&amp;amp;#8217;m 16 and I&amp;amp;#8217;ve been with my boyfriend for two years. We are both ready to have sex but we are scared of the consequences. My question: Can girls under 21 can get birth control at a drugstore without a prescription and without parental permission? I don&amp;amp;#8217;t want my parents to be involved because I&amp;amp;#8217;m not comfortable talking to them about sex. I&amp;amp;#8217;m hoping to have safe sex without ending up pregnant. Good for you for thinking about birth control before you&amp;amp;#8217;re sexually active -one in four girls and women don&amp;amp;#8217;t use any form at all the first time they have sex. But how easy birth control is to access depends on where you live. In some states, such as California, Iowa and New York, adolescents can access confidential health services and get gyno care and contraception without parental consent. In other states, like Illinois and Florida, you have to be married, a mother, or pregnant in order to receive the same services. And many states don&amp;amp;#8217;t have a law at all that protects adolescents. Check out your state&amp;amp;#8217;s laws here (on page 2): http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/psrh/full/3618204.pdf. Planned Parenthood is often the best place for teens to get birth control counseling and discounted pills. You can&amp;amp;#8217;t get birth control pills, patches or rings without a prescription&amp;amp;#8212;they&amp;amp;#8217;re not available over the counter. But you can always get condoms at the drugstore, no matter where you live&amp;amp;#8212;and they won&amp;amp;#8217;t call your parents to tell them. Readers, did you talk about birth control with your parents before you became sexually active? Were you nervous the first time you went on birth control? How did you get on birth control, and what methods did you find the easiest? Have a sex health question of your own? Ask Dr. Kate here, and keep checking back to see if she&amp;#x27;s answered it. Plus, more about birth control * Find a Better Birth Control * Do or Don&amp;#x27;t: Spilling About Your Sex Life to Your Parents * Where Do You Purchase Condoms? More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow Glamour on Twitter."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2010/02/sex-question-can-i-get-birth-c>