2005-10-31
education, contraception, and other sex-related ramblings
This article in Salon, Last two days to tell the FDA: Emergency contraception is a no-brainer!, made me think of a long, good discussion I had with a friend yesterday. The basic gist of the convo was that America as a whole is vastly undereducated when it comes to anything related to sex, and even our bodies in general. It's a sad statement, but a very real one.
While the article is focused purely on emergency contraception, it (and the pages it links to) brings up the bigger issues of abortion, contraception, and sex ed. Yesterday, we pretty much agreed that if more people, especially at a young age, were educated about sex, their contraception choices, and both male and female bodies we wouldn't have the problems with teen pregnancy, our astonishingly high infant mortality rate and even the incredible number of people living in poverty.
A big money quote from the linked Boston Globe article pretty much sums up the current situtation:
If we're going to insist on keeping people in the dark, we're going to have to accept that we will still have people getting pregnant (and let's not forget passing STDs, but that's another issue entirely). Just because we teach children about sex doesn't mean they're going to run home and start fucking like bunnies. As a part of sex education should be alternatives to sex, but even without these I doubt many more will have sex than those currently.
Long story short, we need to remove the stick up our ass that the prudish "moral majority" has placed there. We need to open the doors, break down the barriers to information, and let people (especially teenagers) know about themselves and their options. If we can do this, we'll reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, which will help reduce the number of young girls who are forced to drop out to have a child and thereby placed at a lower station in life than they could otherwise reached.
With more information people make smarter choices. By sheltering our children (and even ourselves) in this way, we're only hurting ourselves and our future.
While the article is focused purely on emergency contraception, it (and the pages it links to) brings up the bigger issues of abortion, contraception, and sex ed. Yesterday, we pretty much agreed that if more people, especially at a young age, were educated about sex, their contraception choices, and both male and female bodies we wouldn't have the problems with teen pregnancy, our astonishingly high infant mortality rate and even the incredible number of people living in poverty.
A big money quote from the linked Boston Globe article pretty much sums up the current situtation:
Aren't the youngest precisely those who should be most protected from pregnancy? Or do we still think that motherhood should be the punishment for sex?It's a sad thing to realize that many probably do feel that those having sex outside of marriage should be punished, and that they deserve whatever they get. It's difficult to think about, but there are many who do not realize when sex can lead to pregnancy, their options to protect themselves, or even how to use their protection properly (e.g. that vitamins and antibiotics can cancel out the effects of birthcontrol, etc).
If we're going to insist on keeping people in the dark, we're going to have to accept that we will still have people getting pregnant (and let's not forget passing STDs, but that's another issue entirely). Just because we teach children about sex doesn't mean they're going to run home and start fucking like bunnies. As a part of sex education should be alternatives to sex, but even without these I doubt many more will have sex than those currently.
Long story short, we need to remove the stick up our ass that the prudish "moral majority" has placed there. We need to open the doors, break down the barriers to information, and let people (especially teenagers) know about themselves and their options. If we can do this, we'll reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, which will help reduce the number of young girls who are forced to drop out to have a child and thereby placed at a lower station in life than they could otherwise reached.
With more information people make smarter choices. By sheltering our children (and even ourselves) in this way, we're only hurting ourselves and our future.
