Schools distributing birth control

[Garbo91]

Which is a great idea, and we will teach our kids, and you will teach your kids, but who is going to teach all the kids whose parents don't think like we do? Sadly, you can't force parents to "parent", so the slack is going to have to picked up another way. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all children have good parents (or any parents for that matter). It's just unrealistic to expect all learning to go back to the home...

Once again, I'm a bit late on the discussions... But I absolutely agree with you Jdarg! Who knows what parents say to their kids behind closed doors. Wether they are encoreging safe sex or just ignoring the subject all together.

At SoWal High last year my biology teacher gave us a little slap in the face about pregnency, STDs, and all of that wonderful stuff. He showed us the pros and cons to it all.
Yes I've heard the 'birds and the bees' talk from my parents... But they never did get into all of the potential dangers of having unprotected sex and whatnot that I think all teenagers need to hear before they become sexually active.

I'm all for Sex Ed in school and the passing out of condoms. As for birth control pills, shots, and patches... This should be something you deal with at the local health clinic or at your doctors office. Let them be the ones to sit down and speak with these girls and explain to them (where they can fully understand everything) the affects that come along with getting on birth control.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Maybe the boys should also get schooled in STDs and their rolls and responsibilities as fathers. Sports, school, homework, partying, feeding the pets, dating -- oh, yeah, I have to go feed the baby. I might be late for school.

 

[scooterbug44]

They only teach sex ed to the girls? WTF?

 

[30A Skunkape]

For what is is worth, teen pregnancy rates are much lower now than they were just 30 years ago (shock!). Regarding sexually transmitted diseases, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphillis are transmitted at much lower rates than they were 30 years ago, but there has been a mild spike in syphillis and chlamydia as of late. HIV transmission is fairly stable but remains overwhelmingly a disease of homosexual men and women who have sex with bisexual men, not heterosexual teenagers. There is still work to be done, but by and large efforts to thwart STD transmission and unwanted pregnancy among teens have worked.

 

[scooterbug44]

There is still a LOT of work to be done - we have the highest teen pregnancy rate among western industrialized nations and I had heard that STD rates were increasing again.

I think we can shoot a little higher than having 30% of our young women become pregnant by age 20! Or that 1/2 sexually active young people will get infected by a STD the time they are 25!!!

Last time I was at the lady doctor, the typical "safe sex" warning had more of a bite because she had recently diagnosed a young woman w/ HIV and was still quite upset about it.

 

[30A Skunkape]

There is still a LOT of work to be done - we have the highest teen pregnancy rate among western industrialized nations and I had heard that STD rates were increasing again.

I think we can shoot a little higher than having 30% of our young women become pregnant by age 20! Or that 1/2 sexually active young people will get infected by a STD the time they are 25!!!

Last time I was at the lady doctor, the typical "safe sex" warning had more of a bite because she had recently diagnosed a young woman w/ HIV and was still quite upset about it.

The problem is that in terms of physiology, 20 is the perfect time to be pregnant! Where did you get that stat about 1/2 of the sexually active getting an STD? I am guessing this might be true if one considers HPV as an STD.

As an aside, I bet some of those other Western countries would love to have the 'problem' of citizens breeding. Some European countries with socialist tendencies are facing ruin due to a lack of new births, so much so that they are importing new 'citizens' from north Africa.

 

[rancid]

The problem is that in terms of physiology, 20 is the perfect time to be pregnant! Where did you get that stat about 1/2 of the sexually active getting an STD? I am guessing this might be true if one considers HPV as an STD.

As an aside, I bet some of those other Western countries would love to have the 'problem' of citizens breeding. Some European countries with socialist tendencies are facing ruin due to a lack of new births, so much so that they are importing new 'citizens' from north Africa.

Since when does Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) not qualify as a sexually transmitted disease?

Your second thought made me curious ; Is the desire for uneducated masses rapidly reproducing the reason conservatives oppose birth control ? They want a large , cheap labor force to fuel the economy.

 

[30A Skunkape]

Since when does Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) not qualify as a sexually transmitted disease?

Your second thought made me curious ; Is the desire for uneducated masses rapidly reproducing the reason conservatives oppose birth control ? They want a large , cheap labor force to fuel the economy.

It does not qualify as an STD per se if it is a strain not known to cause disease, but point taken.

I'm not sure how conservatism was brought into this but the cheap labor force is already here, and it isn't the conservatives that want to give them the right to vote.

 

[Jdarg]

Teen birth rate increasing. It is no shocker that states with abstinence only school programs have the highest birth rates.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/05/teen.births.ap/index.html

 

[NoHall]

Teen birth rate increasing. It is no shocker that states with abstinence only school programs have the highest birth rates.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/12/05/teen.births.ap/index.html

You know what's extra strange? I know a teenager who recently had a baby, and gave every indication that she WANTED to have a baby. And in the both the black and hispanic communities here, it's not uncommon to see a pregnant teenager whose family seems to think, "Eh...here's another baby in the house. Break out the crib again." Some family member takes care of the child while the teenaged mother goes to school during the day. (And it's great that she stays in school, right?)

I'm assuming that those situations figure into the birth rate statistics?