My cousin is only 17 years old and she has already had her second child. She should have been walking across the stage to accept her diploma this month. Instead, she was at home taking care of two children.

Like some of the girls at Gloucester High, birth control and practicing safe sex was rarely a topic of discussion. It breaks my heart to see my cousin in the position she’s in because — like many pregnant teens — it’s not entirely her fault.

An unstable home environment and a lack of sex education is partly to blame for her situation.

My cousin and her siblings have never had good role models to follow and frequently changing homes didn’t help the problem. Since she was never taught by her parents how to practice safe sex, the only sex education she learned came from the TV or word of mouth.

She also had no access to affordable contraception. Because prescription contraception was too expensive to afford on her family’s income and their insurance did not cover the costs, the idea of getting a prescription for birth control stayed just that — an idea.

When I learned in April that Michigan Democratic state lawmakers proposed legislation that would expand sex education and improve access to contraceptives for low-income families, I couldn’t have been happier.

The initiative included measures such as requiring sex education as early as middle school and widening access to birth control for low-income women.

Some might argue that middle school is too early for a child to start learning about sex. In my opinion, it’s never too early.

I didn’t have sex education until I was in ninth grade but I distinctly remember being in middle school and overhearing conversations in the girls’ locker room of sex rendezvous that occurred the night before.

Teens are going to learn about sex regardless of whether their parents want them to or not.

Some parents don’t even want to think about discussing the topic with their child. If a parent is uncomfortable talking with their child, that’s when the school should step in. It would be better for a parent or trained official to teach a child the facts about sex than to take the chance of them learning misleading information from friends, magazines and TV.

The idea to make birth control more accessible for low-income women couldn’t have come at a better time. With the expense of many things increasing, it can be easy for people to forgo buying the things they don’t see as a necessity.

Some women might not view birth control as a necessity because paying bills and putting food on the table is more important. But birth control is just as important because it can prevent unplanned pregnancies which can lead to added stress on low-income families. If birth control is the first precaution taken, women wouldn’t have to look toward abortion and adoption as a solution to an unplanned pregnancy.

Forcing insurance companies that cover prescriptions to include contraception in the plan might prevent many unplanned pregnancies among low-income women.

According to Advocates for Youth, low-income teens between the ages of 15 and 19 account for 73 percent of all pregnancies in that age group. I assume that if contraception was more affordable, that statistic would be a lot lower.

I support this legislation because it has the potential to better educate teens about sex and decrease the number of pregnancies among teens and low-income women. It might be too late for my cousin but this bill could help teens in situations similar to hers.

I know that if contraception was more affordable and sex education was more of a priority in schools, a lot of young women would still be playing the role of teen instead of mommy.

Keiara Tenant is the State News opinion writer. Reach her at tennan10@msu.edu .