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I think it is long overdue to start treating high schoolers as though they have a semblance of a brain. They know about sex, they know it feels good -- abstinance only is a farce.
What I would like to see is have a comprehensive sex ed program that not only taught about tab A going into slot B, but the ramifications of all decisions. What happens if you 'give it up' to feel loved by someone who is using you? What are the potential decisions of an unplanned pregnancy -- and what exactly does that mean? What is it like to be 16 and know you will be paying child support for the next 18 years? What does it mean to be dx with herpes before your senior year?
Let's really show these kids all the possibilities of all their decisions....maybe it just may lead a few of them to think before they act.
Camping! - how dare you suggest facts over ignorance? Or suggest that teens can decide for themselves if they want to have sex with this person at this time or not. Your ideas would be devastating to parental illusions of control.
Good ideas. Ignorance never helped anyone decide anything.
I think it is long overdue to start treating high schoolers as though they have a semblance of a brain. They know about sex, they know it feels good -- abstinance only is a farce.
What I would like to see is have a comprehensive sex ed program that not only taught about tab A going into slot B, but the ramifications of all decisions. What happens if you 'give it up' to feel loved by someone who is using you? What are the potential decisions of an unplanned pregnancy -- and what exactly does that mean? What is it like to be 16 and know you will be paying child support for the next 18 years? What does it mean to be dx with herpes before your senior year?
Let's really show these kids all the possibilities of all their decisions....maybe it just may lead a few of them to think before they act.
Yes, education and more education is the answer. NOTHING will stop ALL teenagers from having a baby but it will stop many.
Other things to do:
Teach them how much MONEY it takes to have children....love is NOT enough.
Stop glorifying baby-making....it's not all a Hallmark moment.
And here's a shocker......start thinking about the baby FROM THE BABIES point of view!
I know, it's a radical "Oh my Gawd Ithought it was only what I wanted" moment. But that's all I see...I want this, I want that , I need this....not just with teenagers but grown adults!
Does the BABY want to be born?
Does this kid WANT an uneducated 15 year old for a mother?
It's said that 50% of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.
Do you think its better to focus on preventing unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancies by improving access to contraceptives rather than focusing on making abortion a crime?
Anti-Choice Advocates Oppose Measures That Actually Decrease the Abortion Rate? | PEEK | AlterNet (http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/107615/anti-choice_advocates_oppose_measures_that_actually_dec rease_the_abortion_rate/#more - broken link)
I absolutely think that contraceptives need to be accessed and education to go along with them. The more info people have about sex, they then make more informed choices. This idea of making abortion a crime and not teaching kids about sex makes no sense to me at all. Do people really expect teens to not partake in sex because they don't know what it is? I say start educating them early and tell them places they can go for more info. Maybe contraception can be accessed by girls as long as they get yearly paps,,,or they show some kind of commitment to taking care of their reproductive systems... Give Birth control to them with 'strings attached'...
Making abortion a crime does not mean it will stop. It will just happen in homes,,,leading to medical disasters, infected mothers, deformed babies etc etc and the medical community is left to fix botched illegal medical procedures done at home. Why???
Making it a crime will cause people to look to their boyfriends to punch them in the stomach or use a wire hanger to abort their babies at home. That is not fixing the problem.
Yes, education and more education is the answer. NOTHING will stop ALL teenagers from having a baby but it will stop many.
Other things to do:
Teach them how much MONEY it takes to have children....love is NOT enough.
Stop glorifying baby-making....it's not all a Hallmark moment.
And here's a shocker......start thinking about the baby FROM THE BABIES point of view!
I know, it's a radical "Oh my Gawd Ithought it was only what I wanted" moment. But that's all I see...I want this, I want that , I need this....not just with teenagers but grown adults!
Does the BABY want to be born?
Does this kid WANT an uneducated 15 year old for a mother?
Does this baby WANT to be poor?
Exactly! I told my niece that if she were to get pregnant she would be tossed out of her catholic high school, but her boyfriend would still be allowed to attend. It never even occurred to her that if she were to get pregnant, she would pay a much steeper price then boyfriend.
I don't think kids think too much beyond the fun of the moment, or perhaps they have a romanticized version of raising a baby or a completely simplistic idea of abortion. They need to have these things spelled out to them. It wouldn't stop all pregnancies, or all STDs....but I do believe it would delay at least some sexual activity as well as reduce the number of teen pregnancies.
I think these things need to be discussed in middle school as well.
I say, educate! And those gals who get pregnant and have babies at 15, 16, or 17 shouldn't be put on the cover of magazines for the world to see. That just glamorizes teen pregnancy and does no good.
You are correct. My daughter got pregnant at 17. The hardest thing to deal with was trying to balance between not glamorizing the situation as an example to other teens in the neighborhood and still give her the emotional support she needed and deserved as a pregnant female.
All the hoopla in the media of famous young girls getting pregnant is NOT helpful. Other teens don't realize they don't have the same budget or resources (nanny) that the famous girls have. It's a whole different deal and effects everyone in the family.
I'm not sure if education is the answer. Good Lord, they have all had sex education and there is a greater teen pregnancy epidemic than ever before. I have no idea what it would take to stop the problem. I do think both the girl and guy involved should have to take mandatory parenting and financial classes.
I love my grandson with all my heart, but it sure has been a long bumpy road. Giving birth does not make a teen an adult...but they sure think it does.
This thread makes me sad. Clearly we don't get that sex, the sex urge is a powerful thing. Funny, one would not expect to safely be around large livestock like cattle or horses without their, the males at least, being neutered. Domestic dogs and cats are hard enough to keep around (be around) without neutering. I had a neighbor who was always having his prize purebred's 'run away'. I wonder why. More recently my last landlord was given a cat to cat sit. After a week of nearly non-stop yowling we were all a bit mad. As in crazy. I said, "you've got to get her fixed". They were like "is that what it is, we thought she was homesick". Sheesh. Do you think lectures are enough to keep teens from experimenting with sex?! I have spent most of my life in NYC, inner city NYC. In the church I spent many a day there was the odd young girl that was 'sent away'. Emphasis on 'the odd'. It wasn't common. Despite what many think about black people, the stereotypes of promiscuous and profligate" are not quite accurate. Here in the Pacific Northwest I see more pregnant teens in a single day than in an entire year in NYC. It is truly jaw dropping the magnitude of the disparity. If you really want to keep young people celibate, "sex education" isn't the answer, Jesus (lot's of Jesus) is. Mind you, I don't advocate that kind of cop out solution, but it is effective.
I tried to get a vasectomy when I was 27 and was told I could not because I did not have children. More recently, after fathering three, at age 47, I repeated the request to my urologist. He said NYC requires he get a witness. I got one. Then he had to counsel me on the risks of the procedure. Then there was a mandatory 30 day 'think it over'. And finally, the procedure would have to be performed under general anethstetic and since I was over 35 this would require an EKG and a Stress test prior. I guess they didn't want me to get that vasectomy. America is third last in the world in the rate at which the average couple has sex but has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world... ...
Young people will have sex. Let's give them something better to work with than birth control pills that screw with young women's endocrine system and for the love of Pete can we get the bloke's something more user friendly than condoms!! When condoms are ten times thinner than they are at present, yet ten times as durable they might have a more than even chance of being used by most normal men. As it stands... .. well, you can see for yourselves. I would be more hopeful if I saw even one poster in this thread admit the futility of trying to scare or educate young people out of trying sex. What other creature on the planet reaches sexual maturity at age 10 and then spends another 10 or 15 celibate? It's madness. In fact, it has driven more than a few young men and women mad. Such a waste of human potential. The Roman Catholic Church has a lot to answer for.
I think it is long overdue to start treating high schoolers as though they have a semblance of a brain. They know about sex, they know it feels good -- abstinance only is a farce.
What I would like to see is have a comprehensive sex ed program that not only taught about tab A going into slot B, but the ramifications of all decisions. What happens if you 'give it up' to feel loved by someone who is using you? What are the potential decisions of an unplanned pregnancy -- and what exactly does that mean? What is it like to be 16 and know you will be paying child support for the next 18 years? What does it mean to be dx with herpes before your senior year?
Let's really show these kids all the possibilities of all their decisions....maybe it just may lead a few of them to think before they act.
I wholeheartedly agree, because this really was how I was brought up. Teen aged years were not an extension of elementary school biding time until the magic #18 popped up and out you go. I was raised from early on with the idea in mind that I need to learn to fend for myself. How could I do that if I'm cultivated like a mushroom in the dark? Parenting a teen in terms of facilitating their independence worked out best for all parties involved in my case. The rules that were strict were a safety net for me, and teens are capable of seeing that as love when delivered respectfully. The fact is my most troubled teen peers had parents so lax that no one ever knew who they were-- lost in space somewhere, kid would act out all over the place. Other extreme- the fearful punitive disciplinarians- because a parent is embarrassed about the subject, the kid can't talk about it with you? Where & how would you prefer they learn if you don't want to learn? These kids were school yard bullies, running away from home, or seeking real parenting from their friends parents.
Not just abortion, a sign of a larger symptom going on-- self discipline is something I find lacking in the generations coming up behind me. Whatever is the cause, it needs to be addressed before it manifests itself into issues like these. I think parents having coaches would be very helpful for a dozen related issues.
While it might appear superficially that I'm right to life, I'm actually pro choice for the simple fact no one can legislate around the unique circumstances these women find themselves in, nor has right to life side guaranteed the merest quality of life for anyone involved. It appears they're working on that now but my trust in their intentions has been too deeply damaged through abusive actions perpetrated over decades.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08
It's said that 50% of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.
Do you think its better to focus on preventing unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancies by improving access to contraceptives rather than focusing on making abortion a crime?
Anti-Choice Advocates Oppose Measures That Actually Decrease the Abortion Rate? | PEEK | AlterNet (http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/107615/anti-choice_advocates_oppose_measures_that_actually_dec rease_the_abortion_rate/#more - broken link)
Contraceptives have been widely available to women as well as comprehensive sex education, but neither is working well. We need to focus more on abstinence.
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