Norplant's effectiveness in pregnancy prevention will decrease unwanted pregnancies, out of wedlock births, and abortions. If teens do not use condoms, these diseases will spread quickly. No clear conclusion can be drawn to suggest one public health problem is worse than the other. Extensive counseling at the Laurence Paquin School includes the value of using condoms in conjunction with Norplant in order to educate the students and prevent the spread of venereal diseases. It also often fosters a trusting relationship between the student and the health care staff.
Moral issues constitute another aspect of the Norplant controversy.
The issue of promiscuity is weighty because of observations that it has a relationship with drug use, low grades and suicide rates. Students who are not regularly sexually active will probably not get Norplant because a significant amount of money, counseling and premeditation are involved in obtaining it. Counseling is crucial in dealing with moral concerns about Norplant. Regardless of the amount of promiscuity that Norplant may or may not create, the amount of counseling that a teen must go through will send her the message that there is a social standard for sex and that someone does care about the level of her sexual activity. Since counseling requires the input of the student, it also reduces the chance of giving girls the message that they are a problem because they can not take responsibility for themselves.