September 06, 2008
Let’s Talk About Sex
Charles M. Blow in the New York Times:
Sarah Palin has a pregnant teenager. And, she’s not alone. According to a report published in 2007, there are more than 400,000 other American girls in the same predicament.
In fact, a 2001 Unicef report said that the United States teenage birthrate was higher than any other member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. tied Hungary for the most abortions. This was in spite of the fact that girls in the U.S. were not the most sexually active. Denmark held that title. But, its teenage birthrate was one-sixth of ours, and its teenage abortion rate was half of ours.
If there is a shame here, it’s a national shame — a failure of our puritanical society to accept and deal with the facts. Teenagers have sex. How often and how safely depends on how much knowledge and support they have. Crossing our fingers that they won’t cross the line is not an intelligent strategy.
To wit, our ridiculous experiment in abstinence-only education seems to be winding down with a study finding that it didn’t work. States are opting out of it.
More here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 11:33 PM | Permalink
Comments
Charles M Blow speaking about sex invites the question: is there some pun intended?
The problem with teenage sex is not that exists, it does. But it's rich food. Too much of it and voila, girls arrive at a reproductive age earlier and hormones do the rest.
Sarah Palin should know that herself... She ain't thin by any standards nor thin are her daughters.
Pass the sugar
Posted by: Felix E F Larocca MD | Sep 7, 2008 3:58:52 PM
Dr: please no ad hominen (or feminen) attacks or comments. It's not necessary.
I think Reich was far too ahead of his time in this as in many other matters: children and teens have a sensual and sexual aspect and life and it should be understood and educated and allowed to mature. We can't even talk about this stuff in Ammerika because of the insanity of evangelical and puritanical zealots! Craziness...but as humanity has been having teens have babies since time immemorial, it's not going away just by pretending it doesn't exist. That's why i put my teenage daughter on birth control and regularly support her choices and remind her of her responsibilities to make a choice to have a child when SHE can provide for it: otherwise it's abortion time. It's that simple, and it's NOT a moral choice, it's a HUMAN choice, and we have evolved enough now to realize that we have too many people and not enough resources and there are millions of sick and starving and abused children alive right now who need us to care about them.
I also chose to have only 2 children because I live my life with eyes open and rationality intact and know that overpopulation is a very serious problem.
Posted by: missvolare | Sep 7, 2008 6:10:49 PM
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