"Also, I was shocked that my son did not see the merits of making birth control available to young sexually active teens..."

This is one of the most difficult issues to resolve. It seems everyone has a gut reaction to the idea....for OR against. It seems like it is just saying "here...use these, and do anything you wish..", but it also seems that many will just 'do anything they wish', anyway, and they might as well be protected.

   Anytime you have a controversy strewn with debates over moral AND psychological opinions, you'll never get any sort of consensus.

They try to solve it by requiring 'parental approval, but that hardly addresses the real problem...but only moves it back one level.

It is similar to the issue of making clean needles available to drug addicts.....
   I think I am mostly in favor of making ANY protection available to kids, even without parents' approval....even though it makes me sad that it is necessary.