The Politics of Overnight Birth Control

[Kaylara]

Lara Riscol, AlterNet
May 28, 2001

Neighbors said she played often with her 13-month-old son in the front yard of her parent's home where she lived. Two baby swings, yellow and red, hang on ropes from limbs of a small tree. She was 16 when she got pregnant. Married the father. That Saturday morning when he was away serving in the Marines, she changed their boy's diaper, strapped him into the back car seat and drove to work at McDonalds. Eight hours and 130 degrees later, Diana Rodriguez returned to her car and dead baby. Screaming, she refused to give the body to paramedics. "It was a busy day. I didn't mean it. I forgot." She now faces up to 16 years in prison.


The headlines read "13-Month-Old Died in Car While Woman at Job." But usually someone her age -- a teenager -- is called a child, an innocent who must be shielded from temptation by education and sexual health services.


"Were talking about young people who can't remember to bring their homework to school or set their alarm clock -- and yet we want them to remember to use a condoms every time they engage in sexual intercourse?" says the head of the Florence, Kentucky health board's human sexuality committee, which decided abstinence-only is in, sex education's out.


Too young and irresponsible to handle sexual knowledge, but better be ready for baby should pregnancy follow the dirty deed. Who knows if Rodriguez had planned to become a mom before graduating from high school? But odds are she was taught to save herself for marriage. Dismiss her story as an isolated tragedy, one that has nothing to do with anything except one young woman's horrendous move. Or roll it into the many daily stories that dot headlines nationwide, such as abandoned infants at fire stations and dumpsters, shaking deaths by fathers trying to stop the crying, or parents otherwise ill prepared to bring a new life into this world.


The irrefutable fact is we are not giving young people the internal or external resources needed to make smart reproductive choices. Or adults. As the world zips ahead at technological warp speed, expanding and complicating possibilities found before only in science fiction -- cyberspace, cloning, fertility treatment, robotics, globalization -- government cranks back the clock to limit and simplify by legislating against sexual health services and education. Have sex, suffer the consequences is resurrected as public policy. Should an "oops" pregnancy happen -- and half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended -- conservatives are hard at work to ensure the pregnant one won't know of or can't exercise the latest medical options.


Called the biggest kept secret in medicine, emergency contraception (EC) can be taken up to 72 hours after unprotected intercourse to either block ovulation or, if too late, prevent the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus. Research shows the two-dose hormone pills could cut the nation's three million unintended pregnancies a year in half, as well as 800,000 abortions. The true impact of EC is extricating individual lives, existing and potential, from, say, the drunken heat of the moment, forced sex, a night's desperation for promised love or a just broken condom.


But since the FDA approved two "morning after" pills three years ago, Preven and Plan B, political debate has raged over this technology that permits consequence-free non-procreative sex. Health advocates are pushing to make EC more accessible, as in Europe. W. Benson Harer Jr, the new president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, recently asked doctors to give women advance prescriptions of Preven, Plan B or Micronor during routine visits. California has a bill to make emergency contraception available over the counter, so that women, in an emergency, can obtain it without a prior doctor's visit. Only Washington state now provides that option. Last month eight California counties launched a pilot program that allows EC distribution without prescription.


San Bernardino County, however, made an unprecedented pill-ban request to bar emergency contraception in county-run health clinics. Denied by the California Family Health Council, the request should wind its way to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this year. "[Our] motivation is based upon a desire to protect children in our County and to uphold community standards, preserve local control and to defend parental rights," wrote the chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. Never mind that county health records show the vast majority of the pills recipients were not teens, but poor women without insurance or access to family planning.


What the proposed ban does fall in line with is the right's mission to deny medication to those most vulnerable to an unwanted pregnancy. Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) has sponsored an education amendment to deny federal funds to school-based health centers that provide emergency contraception without parental consent. A second Helms amendment withdraws funds from "any state or local education agency," should EC be distributed on the premises period.


Of course when it comes to government withholding medical options, the vulnerable are always the most afflicted. Each year, some 32,000 women become pregnant from sexual assault; half abort. In several states, lawmakers spar with the Catholic Church to mandate hospitals, including the multiplying Catholic-affiliated ones, to dispense emergency contraception to rape victims. The Catholic health system, the nation's largest nonprofit health care delivery, can refuse reproductive services under legislated "conscience clauses." Illinois, the first state to reach an EC compromise, will require hospitals to merely inform rape victims of the pills' availability. Some Catholic hospitals offer the pills only after testing the victim to ensure she's not ovulating, thus giving the rapist's sperm a fighting chance.


Emergency contraception falls into the abortion debate's great divide -- when does life begin? The extreme right believes every sperm and egg is potential life, and stands against all medical contraception. Wal-Mart, the nation's fifth-largest pharmacy chain, circumvented controversy early on by refusing to ever fill EC prescriptions. Since the pills work best within 12 hours of intercourse, Wal-Mart's ban affects millions of women in their childbearing years, especially those in rural areas who have nowhere else nearby to go.


Meanwhile, Pharmacists for Life International is offering legal support to pharmacists who refuse to fill EC prescriptions. Pharmacist Karen Bauer lost her job of seven years with a Cincinnati Kmart for her "it stops human life" refusal, and her case has gone to court. Several states are considering legislation to protect such "conscientious objectors." The media has treated Bauer's case as a moral stand. But is it moral to accept a health care position delivering medication to those in need, and then unilaterally decide which legal prescriptions not to provide based on your personal beliefs? Could a Christian Scientist become a pharmacist and not fill prescriptions because God will heal?


Only hardliners equate emergency contraception -- which can spare a woman and her loved ones the agonizing decision to abort or give birth to an unwanted child -- with abortion. No fetus forming in the uterus. No fingers. No toes. No heartbeat. But pandering to hardliners, President Bush overruled Secretary of State Colin Powell's selection and nominated U.N. Vatican representative John Klink to head the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The anti-family planning, anti-condom Klink could soon have power to stop emergency contraception from further being included in some health kits to refugees forced out of their homes during war and conflict.


Set to fly his anti-abortion colors, President Bush told Catholic leaders that his faith-based initiative would help the "life" movement, "because when you're talking about welcoming people of faith to help people who are disadvantaged and are unable to defend themselves, the logical step is also those babies."


But the administration continues to whittle away fundamental steps to prevent the need for abortion. Internationally, President Bush reinstated UN restrictions for family planning funding. Nationally, he increased funding for abstinence-only programs, which supplant sex education and mention birth control only to discuss their inflated failure rate. More baffling, he moved to eliminate birth control coverage for federal employees, affecting 1.2 million women and their ability to manage the size of their family.


The Bush-loving hardliners, who call themselves pro-life, pro-family, flex swelling political muscle to regress our nation to when sex means life or death, always.


Maybe teenage Rodriguez would have baked her baby boy in a parked car while working all day even if she had access to sex education and the latest reproductive services. Even if she had been taught early on that her sex is part of her beautiful, valued self, not something she does. Even if she had been given ample information and support to make sound choices before or after getting pregnant.


But today's political reality forbids all that. I share responsibility for her loss, as must other Americans who influence the myriad of policies denying education and sexual health options in the name of morality and life.

Found at:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10929

Kaylara

[Mariposa De La Luna]

I couldn't finish reading this. Its just crazy! I can't believe people are being denied something like this for religious reasons. That sucks.

[Rævyn Cigány]

Just a few points...random at best...

First of all, governments all over the world are complaining about the over-population of our Earth, and yet it's people like Dubya who are causing this every-growing (excuse the pun) problem! I will be very blunt and say that I was most certainly NOT a virgin when I got married and in its infant stages, I DID use the morning-after pill on one occasion...it saved me from years of ridicule and from financial and emotional hardship (that I was not prepared for at the age of 17). I was an unwed mother by the age of 20 however, and although I would not give up my son (and his subsequent brother and sister) for all the tea in China, there are millions of women who either do not have the means to protect themselves (very rare, I know; it's not an excuse, I was refering to rape victims) or are simply caught up in the throes of passion (what are they? I forgot after child number three! :rolleyes: ) and unable to prevent pregnancy with the 'normal methods'.

The one thing that really P****S me off about this (and please be prepared, it's going to sound like I'm bashing, but trust me, I am not, this is the cold hard facts of my former faith) is that Dubya's 'wonderful' faith-bases initiative is giving Catholicism the right to jump straight back into the dark ages where a woman had absolutely NO choice about her child-bearing; ie how many and how often, etc etc....one thing I remember very clearly growing up was that so many families around me (all Catholic) had up to, I think it was 17 children, because Catholicism prohibits birth control. And two of those mothers I remember dying very early in life (and in childbirth) because their bodies just couldn't handle it! And this isn't in some little hick town either (well, in one case, it was)...we're talking about cities where sex education sex education is actually FROWNED upon! ARGH! Could I be more livid?! *takes a deep breath* Okay, I'm not entirely sure I stuck to the subject, but I think I've vented in your ears long enough, so I will close this for now. In closing, I mourn for both the grieving mother and for that poor baby who didn't have to suffer that kind of death (or ANY death for that matter).

With a heavy heart,

Rae )0(

[Lucidia]

first of all.. that girl must be pretty mental if she indeed forgot about her child in her car all day.


in any case... i'm really tired of this whole controversy... because all those damned pro-life people are making the world impossible for those of us who choose to take advantage of modern medicine.

Now i'll say.. that i'm somewhat against second trimester abortions.. but anything before three months (including the few hours/days after conception) is perfectly moral in my eyes being that the 'fetus' isn't really formed and there is ZERO chance of it surviving out of the womb because it has no real working body functions yet. It's not missing out on much as far as i'm concerned... and i'd rather have been an abortion than have grown up in a family that wasn't ready for me and only had me out of some sick religious mentality.

As far as condoms... they are free and everywhere. People dont' use condoms because they DON'T WANT TO... not because they can't find them. There really aren't too many times that I've had unprotected sex that I haven't thought "gee maybe i should ask him to use a condom" first.

Anyway, humans are slowly destroying their ability to have a stable financial situation. This country seems to be forcing people to procreate.. and making sure young people can't get birth control (espeically making it so that parents have to say it's okay.. if kids are going to have sex behind their parents back, why should parents have to ALLOW birth control), and making the situation worse by not offering free medical care for these babies that are born to these teenagers.

ugh.. i'll probaby say more later.

[Apotheosis]

Controlling the reproductive cycles of women is the last significant way that patriarchy has to control women. As always, it's complete !#%$. I don't think it will change until other things change first.

As always,

[Mairwen]

Originally posted by Lucidia
first of all.. that girl must be pretty mental if she indeed forgot about her child in her car all day.

It happens, unfortunately. It's because of morons like her that Kentucky has enacted what is called Brian's Law ~ because of a babysitter locking a beautiful baby boy in a car at Walmart (just down the street from my house) and going shopping for two hours. The parents are now in a deal with General Motors promoting information about this kind of thing ~ how to prevent it.

[Yvonne Belisle]

I am deeply greived that something this tragic has occured. It brings forth it's own series of questions. I have to admit that my first instinct is to blame the mother but is she really wholly to blame? Before you get mad at me think about this.....where were her parents? did she have a sitter? could she afford a sitter? where was the father? was the state helping her? was she doing the best she could? did the system fail her? did we as a society fail them both?
These questions aren't answered in what I read. If the news answered them it wasn't in the article posted. Yes welfare will help with daycare but there are not always openings. If the child is sick they frequently will not take them. Everyday there are parents who have to make a hard choice on leaving kids alone so they can bring in the money to feed them and shelter them and clothe them. This child was trying to do this for her son. Where were the people that should have been helping her.
The pills in question are not the only means of early abortion. The correct perscription of birth control pills is also used and many kids do know about this but not all of them. The kids that need it are not the ones that know! I feel these kids need access to these drugs without parental concent. There may be reasons a child won't go to their parents and say I'm having sex I want to keep from getting pregnant. Or that they allready are and need help. I know a person who had a child before she turned 14. She told her parents when she was in labor! She was a thin girl who always wore sweatshirts so it wasn't noticable and she said nothing. We didn't have the option then that we have now. Every year children run away from home because they are pregnant and can't get help. As a nation we need to acknowledge that we are failing these kids if they have nowhere they feel safe to turn.
Every voice needs to be heard both for and against these things being available to children. We also need to listen to the children themselves. It's easy to say give them access or don't give them access but it's harder to stand behind that choice. If we give them access we need to have a support system in place. It needs to be there before the problem arrises and they have to be able to trust it. Not every child will want to take a pill and lose their child we need to have support for them too. If we say no they can not have access we need to have a support system in place for the same reasons and they must be something the children can trust.
As it stands children have difficulty accessing these services without their parents knowing. How can children trust a system that has many people in it that pressure them to do what they think is right with no real concern for the child. As a parent I dred my children having sex but I will make sure they are protected when they do so. I can stop them at home and I can tell them how I feel but I can't be there 24 hours 7 days a week. All I can do is tell them how I feel and stand behind it and them. Can the beaurocrats do the same? Before we condem can we look in our hearts and say the same of all of us?

[moonmagick4]

I am utterly speechless!!!

[Yvonne Belisle]

By the way the majority of people I have seen marching against abortion are women. I think it has something to so with that maternal instinct so many of us have. I have seen some men march and they may be the ones behind the scenes but the ones in front of the camera's and in the trenches are women. I had to go through a pack of them once and it wasn't pretty.

[Tigerwallah]

Last year the same senario happened - only the parent who forgot the poor baby, was an adult man who worked for Nassau. Apparantly, the baby was asleep, he didn't normally take the baby to daycare, and his brain was on auto-polot.

I often wonder if the government really cares about over-population. The more there are of us, the more revenue is generated for them. Unfortunately, the gov't is still controlled by "good old boys," who are believe that a woman's place is barefoot and pregnant. I say that instead of having abortions, women who find themselves without monitary support sue those politicians who staunchly support pro-life. Let's just see how supportive of anti-abortion legislation someone like George W. and Ashcroft would be if they had to pay child support.

[magicbabs]

She should be fixed....neutered etc...

I remember being a teenager....I remember how stupid I was and I would not have forgotten my child....

Now how you forget your child is in the back seat of a car???....Yeah right!!! Sounds like murder to me!!! PLAUGH!!!

[Lilu]

I can go on and on about this common debate, unfortunately I tend to offend a lot of people with my views, and I don't want to go there today.

I will say this though. What the hell is wrong with the parents and the school system that kids are still going around having unprotected sex? Maybe it's just America and it's "if we don't address the issue, and keep the kids ignorant maybe they'll never figure it out" attitude, but it just seems to me that the system is REALLY failing here.

Australia seems to go for the shock value lessons, and I loved them, because THEY GOT THE MESSAGE THROUGH. When I was in school, not all that long ago, we were taught about just about every STD under the sun. We were shown GRAPHICAL pictures in detail of genitalia depicting the effects of all sorts of things from genital herpes to AIDS.

We were literally handed condoms and bananas or carrots in class and TAUGHT how to put one on the right way without tearing it. And we were taught how to take it off correctly too. How many Americans can say they were ever taught that?

But when you get right down to it. What the HELL is going on with all this unprotected sex?!?! In my opinion if you're not adult enough to go to family planning, or your parents, or to a drugstore to get the protection you need, you aren't adult enough to be having sex in the first place. But I know that doesn't matter, because it's usually the immature kids who get themselves into trouble.

Is this country not afraid of AIDS?
Is this country not afraid of other STDS?

I'll tell you that when I finally got around to doing the deed *grin* (lovely way to put it eh?) there was no way in the freaking world was I not using a condom! And it wasn't because I was afraid of getting pregnant. It was because I was TERRIFIED of getting an STD, especially AIDS. And I was terrified because of what we'd learned in school, and what my mother had taught me at home. They got through to me, and they got through to others. There are still idiots. But I can't help but wonder at the way the school system, it's sex ed, is letting the kids down.

And parents too, because they're too chicken shit to face facts - teens are going to do what they want, with or without your consent, at give them the education to be safe about it, and perhaps you'll teach them in the long run that it's better to wait anyway.

Lilu

[Mairwen]

Originally posted by Lilu
Is this country not afraid of AIDS?
Is this country not afraid of other STDS?

Nope. Why? The all-pervasive "There's a pill for that" mentality of society today.

I remember a world without AIDS. I remember when AIDS was a dietary aide.

[Jazzmine]

I have to put in my two cents worth. I was 17 when I gave birth to my son. He was at my high school graduation. My parents were very supportive. But the father and his parents weren't supportive at all. They wanted me to get an abortion. I refused. I didn't know how hard it would be and let me tell you it was damned difficult. But I love my son with every ounce of my being. I am now 35. I believe that women should be able to make their own choices. My son is now 17 and he is my only child. He will also be graduating from high school next year. I'd have to honestly say that if I were to accidentally get pregnant now I don't know which choice I would make. I have had a tubal to prevent pregnancy, but shit happens and then what do you do.
It's easy to rant and rave when it's happening to someone else, but when it happens to you it's a totally different story.

I definitely believe that women should have their own choice. AndI definitely believe that there shouldn't even be anyone else making the decision for them.

[magicbabs]

Well - I tell you that I have strong feelings about Birth Control. I don't believe in abortion for myself, but I would not want anyone telling me I couldn't have a child.

I had a roommate once that used abortion as a form of birth control. She had 4 abortions in less than 10 months.

I personally won't have children because of some genetic cancer and other various hand me downs my family has....

I work in a clinic and I see people have more children just so that they can get more money from Social Security and Medicaid.....etc. It is a side of the system that disturbs me.

I also see people in my clinic that reproduce because they feel "God" wants them to procreate...

My patients know they will have defective children because of Genetic problems and they still choose to have children. I would not ever tell them not to have the child or abort, but I sometimes question why someone would have a child that is going to be a serious stress on the family. Over the past 6 years, some of these women that have had the children in the name of GOD have given their children over to the state to raise. They have given them up to foster homes and adoption agencies....

Oh well - sorry... I am still at work. Just came back from clinic. I had a woman come in today that has already had a mentally dead child (no brain stem) vegatable. She is currently pregnant with a second child that will most likely be the same. Having a child and not using birth control in the name of Jesus......PLAUGH!!!!!

I guess I am venting. Thank you for listening.

[Lucidia]

Originally posted by Lilu

But when you get right down to it. What the HELL is going on with all this unprotected sex?!?! In my opinion if you're not adult enough to go to family planning, or your parents, or to a drugstore to get the protection you need, you aren't adult enough to be having sex in the first place. But I know that doesn't matter, because it's usually the immature kids who get themselves into trouble.

Is this country not afraid of AIDS?
Is this country not afraid of other STDS?


well... despite our current situation.. the human instinct and whatnot is obviously not to stick barriers in the way of intercourse. I'm not saying that's an excuse.. but people "trust" their lovers... many of them are on other forms of birth control that fail, and both got tested previous to actually having unprotected intercourse with each other anyways. I understand that we NEED to have people understand protected sex is the way to go, but I don't think it has to do with being "adult". People think it will never happen to them... are convinced their infertile... or they simply trust their lover...

people are afraid... but people are also complacent. People trust people... and unfortunately they pay the price for that trust sometimes.

We have larger issues at hand. This whole problem, as far as I can see from what i observe in the sexual trends in NYC (among a lot of my "alternative lifestyle" friends), people are "trusting" a LOT of people. I'm not saying that you can't be polyamourous.. but people are using "I'm poly" as an excuse to have sex with multiple people, form trust with them so they aren't using protection... and just because ONE person happens to get an STD, now a whole chain of people have it. Our current "trends" in sexual/relationship behavior are compounding the problem. If we were faithful to our lovers, and got tested before sleeping with anyone new (making sure both sides get tested) and were actually trustworthy enough to only sleep with that one person (because condoms don't block ALL stds... using condoms doesn't make cheating any better), or a select few people that ALL had a commitment... then obviously diseases wouldnt' spread like wildfire.

I dont' care what people do... but when people lie and cheat and use people... bad things happen. It's a lot deeper than "everyone should use condoms", because we've had condoms WAY before AIDS was even mainstream, and apparently they didn't work then and aren't working now. It's a matter of thinking a little more seriously about the people you're involved with. It's a matter of not trusting someone just because they SAY they got tested.. make them prove it... and if you know they are still sleeping around... DON'T trust their judgement... because if they make ONE mistake... you could die.

yes.. use condoms.. they're free and they don't kill sensation as much as people say (i recommend Durex.. they seem to be the best from experience). Another point is that people seem to think that using a condom during regular vaginal intercourse is fine but they still have unprotected oral sex. If you don't trust the person enough to have unprotected sex with them, why are you going to expose yourself to their possible STD orally?

People just don't think. We desensitze everyone by CONSTANTLY talking about sex and AIDS and STDs in the media.. and people honestly have become complacent to the point where they figure "Hey.. i got tested 6 months ago and like..uhh.. my partners say they got tested too.. and he/she is such a nice person they couldn't possibly be lying to me" and then it happens... and with so many STDs being silent/asymtomatic, people just pass them around without a second thought. Not to mention people get tested and some tests you have to ask for specifically.

Now this is all rather off topic. We WERE talking about pregnancy before i started ranting like a madwoman.

As far as abortions... I had one. I don't feel bad about it either. My mother had 3 abortions before she had me, and I would have been one too except my father finally gave in and let my mother have a child. I also herbally induced a miscarriage (don't try it, it's REALLY dangerous, i was depressed, suicidal, and really irrational). As far as I'm concerned, people need to understand how un-alive a fetus is in it's first embryotic stages, and get over the guilt and stop having children because they are afraid of "killing" life. I must ask... are you REALLY living if you are braindead or disabled so badly you will never work, never find a relationship, never be able to even wipe your own behind? do we really need more unstable teenagers having kids because they HAVE to (some actually want to and have turned out to be GREAT mothers/fathers, but it seems that isn't usually the case)? When are parents going to stop trying to control their nearly adult children and ruin their lives because of their own religious beliefs.

I suppose, in closing, it's like Jehovah's Witnesses. They say that it's better to let your child die than have a blood transfusion. I suppose.. to a lot of pro-life parents... it's better to have your teenager (who may have not even wanted/been ready to have sex with the person, let alone have a child) ruin their life with a child they can't support and care for yet (being that they will possibly discontinue their education and get stuck on welfare), than offer their child birth control options that will allow their child that they SAY they care about the chance to choose for themselves when they will have a child. I'd rather allow my child to deal with the emotional reprocussions of having an early abortion or taking morning after pills than force my child to deal with nearly two decades of child care they aren't prepared for.

And as well... Just because you have sex doesnt mean that you should necesary be ready for having kids. Humanity is obviously at a point where sex isn't just for procreation. I mean.. .what about homo/bi-sexuality? You can't get pregnant with your same sex... so would it be more appropriate for young gay/bi people to have sex than for straight teens to have sex since apparently the concept of sex is now attatched to being able to handle having a child. People say 'if you can't pay the time, don't do the crime', but apparently sex is a lot more than a means of procreation for this society.

I'll stop ranting now... i apologize if i've said anything offensive.. i'm half asleep and was already aggrevated when i wrote all this mess...

[Tigerwallah]

Originally posted by Lucidia



Humanity is obviously at a point where sex isn't just for procreation. I mean.. .what about homo/bi-sexuality? You can't get pregnant with your same sex... so would it be more appropriate for young gay/bi people to have sex than for straight teens to have sex since apparently the concept of sex is now attatched to being able to handle having a child. People say 'if you can't pay the time, don't do the crime', but apparently sex is a lot more than a means of procreation for this society.

I'll stop ranting now... i apologize if i've said anything offensive.. i'm half asleep and was already aggrevated when i wrote all this mess...

Actually, humanity was always at this point. We know that the Ancient Egyptians, Sumarians, Mesopotamians and other cultures had "birth control." All higher brain functioning animals, toothed whales and dolphins, chimps and Bonobos, etc. have sex for fun. Interestingly, being homosexual is not exclusively human either. Bonobos are notoriously bisexual, there have been studies about gay dolphins. So, sex has always been a recreational activity. As a society, we need to be more open about sex to our kids.

I also believe that when a child starts to show interest in sex, they should have to go through a parenting class. I saw a talk show where teenagers were trying to get pregnant. The show made the teenagers take care of a baby each for a day, under the supervision of the mother. Not one of those kids wanted to get pregnant after that experience.

As for birth control and the abortion pill, I believe that it needs to be made more available to correct the mistakes we all make.

[Lucidia]

Originally posted by Tigerwallah


Actually, humanity was always at this point....

I also believe that when a child starts to show interest in sex, they should have to go through a parenting class.

As for birth control and the abortion pill, I believe that it needs to be made more available to correct the mistakes we all make.

yes yes yes. thanks for adding your thoughts to what I said.. because you said what I wanted to say and a bit extra i hadn't thought of. It really is so true that sex isn't just about having kids and whatnot... and because of that... it's sad that so many people are closeminded about ANY form of birth control...

Animals have their paths in nature... if they have offspring... they won't lose their job or drop out of school or have to suffer immensely for it. They have the instincts they need to take care of those offspring and in many cases (but not all cases) the time period between birth and adulthood is immensely shorter than it is for humans.

We may be "animals", but having a child before we are ready affects all things in our lives. It affects our ability to work when and where and how long we want to... it can affect our ability to go to school, and it costs MONEY... something animals in the wild don't have to worry about.

Children are a wonderful and beautiful thing, but if we aren't ready for it... then it might not be so beautiful after all... (although i will admit, children can be a blessing even when they weren't expected and the parent may not have been ready at all... so i'm not making any statements that dont' have a very valid opposite situation). I really like that parenting class idea.... because it's true.. a lot of people wouldn't have kids after seeing how much work they are. In my high school, they had a class (everyone took family planning, but only one of the teachers made students do this.. and i'm happy i didn't have her... because i didn't need to be convinced i shouldn't have a child...) where you had to carry around this 'real' baby doll. it cried when it needed to be changed, fed... or even if you held it wrong. You had to take it everywhere and have people fill out babysitting slips if you left the doll with someone. If you did a bad job, you failed badly in the class. Everyone dreaded that class because they knew already how hard it was from what the other seniors had said. However, sadly enough, they only gave the class to seniors.... and it was the freshmen and sophomores that were REALLY poping out the kids (we played this 'game' called "count the pregnant freshmen" every once in a while).

Strangely enough... many parents of people i knew in high school really tried to get their daughters to have an abortion. However... this backfired because so many of them really wanted to have a child... and the ones that terminated the first time... usually got pregnant again within a year and had the kid this time. The worst part is, at that age, it's not too easy to find a father that was gonna stay with the mother of this child... (not that women can't do it alone.. but it's been proven to a certain degree that single parent families can sometimes not be enough to fully support a child financially/emotionally/mentally, but once again there are always circumstances where the single parent family was much better than having two fighting people traumatizing this child who realizes after a while that his/her parents are only together because of him/her and begins to blame themselves for all the fighting).

I don't think they really discuss options with teens as much as they should. Everyone i knew in high school was VERY dissillusioned about birth control... and these were kids that got passing grades in family planning... *shrugs*

I think the worst part is when parents try to ban schools from issuing and explaining proper use of condoms to thier kids. I know that parents want to do these things themselves.. but a little extra reinforcement won't hurt.. and honestly... giving a teen a condom won't make them want to have sex if they don't already want to, or if they haven't already started... and even then. I'd rather a school have given my child the condom that saved their life/stopped them from getting pregnant than possibly wait to long to realize they are having sex in the first place and have them mess up in a way that could take their life.

I guess younger people need to start viewing sex as if everyone has an STD and that women can get pregnant at any time. Maybe then they'd be less likely to pass up the protection. but that's all beside the point...

Abortion and EC should be available.. but in the US... our darling PrezziePoo Bush decided to shove his christian pro-life agenda down our throats and cut all the funding for these services. It's not the rich girls who have insurance and money to get it done that are the problem.. it's the poor girls that have no medical coverage because they're not quite poor enough for gov assist... and who can't come up with 400 bucks for a procedure.. and now it's even MORE expensive... because the gov. funding used to cover the medications and anesthesia costs, which is why the procedure was under $400 in a lot of family planning facilities. I don't think that abortion is a good form of 'birth control' on a regular basis... And i think any girl that has an abortion should be 'convinced' to start using a form of oral/injected contraceptive (when i had an abortion, I was supposed to recieve councelling reguarding BC afterwards, and never was given such information. I had to make a huge effort on my own to get it, and it's only because i'm a legal adult that i was able to do it alone... a lot of parents won't let their kids get it since they are already outraged they are having sex, although i bet a lot of them where getting just as "jiggy" when they were a teen), so that they can clear thier minds for a while and not worry so much about it.

If you can't stop someone from driving, at least make sure they wear their seat belt, and that their car has an airbag if it's not already equipped with one.

And remember.. it's illegal to drive without insurance....