President Obama signing the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act last spring. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File

With all the talk about trillion dollar coins and the looping scribble scrabble that is the signature of President Obama’s Treasury Secretary nominee Jack Lew, this interesting tidbit for small businesses has probably slipped through the cracks.

This week, the White House outlined what it’s calling a “detailed action plan” to bolster and encourage small business innovation in this country. Focused on startups, growing companies, and underserved markets, the White House is pushing Cross-Agency Priority (CAP) Goals, bringing together the various government agencies in a coordinated effort to improve services and initiatives to benefit small businesses. And there’s now a measurement system in place to make sure the efforts are working. This is all meant to build upon the Startup America initiative, which was started back in 2011 with the goal of promoting small businesses and entrepreneurship across the country.

Among the items that are part of this whole small business promotion plan are BusinessUSA, a bank of services to better customer satisfaction and more inclusive government contracting, something we’re seeing more on the state and city level in places like Chicago and New York.

Small businesses face a slew of challenges to getting off the ground. Besides the cost of starting and running the business, attracting customers, and competition — from both big chains and other small companies — minority- and women-owned businesses also face hurdles tied to funding and outright discrimination. Entrepreneur also took a look at the ways in which the fiscal cliff deal will impact small business. The most pronounced is the end of the payroll tax break.

“While this isn’t specific to small businesses, the pattern is clear: Payroll-tax cuts stimulate job creation and payroll-tax increases discourage it,” the article says, adding expert commentary stating that the holiday created 300,000 jobs.

The other two items (also not really exclusive to small business) are the increased taxes on high earners, which impacts a small fraction of entrepreneurs, and the capital gains tax increase which, the article says, will negatively impact investing and equity financing. These two, it seems, don’t have nearly as much effect as the first might.

But the point of the White House initiatives is to provide an entry way for small businesses to plant a flag and get off the ground. Our advice to small business owners would be to follow the White House and the Small Business Administration on Twitter and Facebook to get updates on new programs. And visit these two websites regularly to find out what sorts of programs you qualify for. Oftentimes, states will also have small business programs that can provide assistance. The help is there, so take advantage of it.

Access to condoms, STD testing, and family planning information and treatment without having to go through parental channels has been great for young girls in many ways. Some teens can’t talk to their parents about certain things and others don’t truly have a parental figure in their lives to seek guidance from so it’s been very beneficial to have services available in schools or through other social organizations that can fill the void when needed.

But there comes a point when boundaries are pushed too much and parents are kept too far out of the loop, and that line has been crossed in the UK. A government program there allows teenage girls to receive birth control implants at school without their parents’ knowledge and consent, and some parents are outraged—as they should be.

More than just the blatant disregard for parental rights, parents are also concerned about their daughters’ health. Implanon, the 3-inch long plastic matchstick that’s surgically installed beneath the surface of the skin under the arm, is effective for up to three years, and according to one mother, the device was placed in her daughter without any consultation with her family doctor, she simply filled out a short medical history.

Parents say they’ve had to search their daughters underarms to determine whether they’ve been implanted and that their right to protect their children has been taken away, while other opposers like the Family Education Trust believe this method will cause teens to be even more sexually reckless. The latter concern is similar to those who believe teaching anything other than abstinence will cause teens to be promiscuous which is naive, but the parents have legitimate concerns.

At the age of 13, the age which the schools will implant these girls, teenagers are not in a position to make a long-term decision about their health, not just sexually, but overall. Hormones in birth control can have long-term effects and it’s important that girls know just what their signing up for when they receive these implants. It shouldn’t be the case that teenage girls only seek resources when they are in trouble–such as abortions or emergency contraceptives, but I don’t think parents should be kept out of the discussion when it comes to an eighth grade girl who is considering becoming sexually active. It’s also not clear whether any type of education accompanies these procedures and that’s just as important as the implant itself because birth control does not prevent STDs.

The attitude from the school system, and even a number of commenters on an article Jezebel wrote on the subject seems to be prevent teen pregnancy by whatever means necessary. The government reports that teen pregnancy has in fact been reduced since the program has been introduced, but there may be other consequences to giving a 13-year-old too much freedom over her sexual life at that age. Ultimately it’s a parent’s job to protect and guide their child in all areas at that age and a school system shouldn’t take that away.

What do you think about this program’s policy of implanting birth control in teens without parental consent? Should the US adopt a similar program since it’s effective?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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