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SALT LAKE CITY — To go on birth control pills, a 13-year-old in North Carolina or California doesn't have to go to a doctor. All she has to do is connect to a website or app where she can get a prescription for oral contraceptives to be delivered to her home.
She can also order day-after pills, sometimes called emergency contraception, and a drug that cuts the risk of contracting HIV.
The service is offered in 17 states by a company called Nurx, which hopes to begin operating in Utah and the rest of the nation before the end of the year. Based in San Francisco, Nurx is part of a sea change in how women and teens obtain birth control: contraception via telemedicine.
Websites and apps enabling women to order birth control pills and other forms of contraception for home delivery are ending the need for regular visits to a doctor's office or clinic to get prescriptions renewed. But they also allow adolescents to take hormone-altering drugs without the oversight of a parent or physician. Some people see it as a sensible way to protect teens from pregnancy, but others see it as a risky practice that enables teen sex in a culture that has disconnected sexual intimacy from healthy relationships.
[To read the full story go to DeseretNews.com](<http://www.ksl.com/ad_logger/ad_logger.php?location=https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900012016/its-getting-easier-for-young-teens-to-get-birth-control-is-this-a-good-thing.html&sponsor=It's getting easier for young teens to get birth control. Is this a good thing?>).
