Abstinence is a crock

[onwa 6]

I believe in teaching the ABC

Abistinence

Be in a Committed relationship

Condoms

Abstinence is very good to teach--worked for me and a bunch of my friends.

If that fails, then at least be in a committed relaionship so you're not sleeping around and increasing your chances (with some form of birth control)

And if you're going to have multiple partners, then yes, always have a condom.

Actually, in South Africa, the women get female condoms because in the poorer communities, the chance of them getting raped is high, so they can just wear the female condom almost constantly for pretection.

[Dr_LHA 3]

However, I don't disagree with abstinance at all....I think it is a VERY good method to teach. Yes, kids should learn about condoms...not about birth control pills because they don't protect against STDs.

So you advocate ignorance of birth control methods? Surely teaching kids about everything is better and letting them understand the caveats is a much better way of helping them, rather than holding information back from them.

What do you think is a bigger problem in first world nations: Teen STDs or Teen Pregancies? I can tell you in my home town we're buried under the load of 13 year mothers, but I don't see that many 13 year HIV positive people.

[chri'stina 190]

Something I find hard to believe is that if someone is not told to use birth control or condoms, it means they will automatically get pregnant as a teen(if they have sex). I think teens know full well how not to get pregnant, but then don't act very responsible in the situation or think it won't happen to them. I grew up in a Christian home with a lot of values and I knew what birth control was at a young age. If someone is old enough to decide to have sex, they probably know what birth control is but don't care. (I am speaking of first world countries too, to be specific.)

Edited August 3, 2007 by stina&suj

[Dr_LHA 3]

Something I find hard to believe is that if someone is not told to use birth control or condoms, it means they will automatically get pregnant as a teen(if they have sex).

Nobody is saying that, it just increases the chances of it happening. Like it or not, the playground/yard is not the best place to learn about sex when you're hitting puberty. I remember being 13 and being told all sorts of nonesense by other kids about sex for example.

[Fandango 1,440]

However, I don't disagree with abstinance at all....I think it is a VERY good method to teach. Yes, kids should learn about condoms... not about birth control pills because they don't protect against STDs.

So you advocate ignorance of birth control methods? Surely teaching kids about everything is better and letting them understand the caveats is a much better way of helping them, rather than holding information back from them.

What do you think is a bigger problem in first world nations: Teen STDs or Teen Pregancies? I can tell you in my home town we're buried under the load of 13 year mothers, but I don't see that many 13 year HIV positive people.

Erm....

[Dr_LHA 3]

My comment was aimed at the fact you advocate not teaching about the pill. How anyone can advocate ignorance is beyond me. The pill protects against pregnancy, which IMHO is a bigger problem with teenagers than STDs are.

Edited August 3, 2007 by Dr_LHA

[Fandango 1,440]

My comment was aimed at the fact you advocate not teaching about the pill. How anyone can advocate ignorance is beyond me. The pill protects against pregnancy, which IMHO is a bigger problem with teenagers than STDs are.

Who's advocating ignorance??? You're twisting what I'm saying.

The pill is not effective against STDs. And it's not just HIV either.

Condoms are the most effective, prevent most STDs AND protect against pregnancy. Why in the world would someone advocate the pill...which cannot make all these claims...over a condom is beyond me.

Let alone the effectiveness of the pill even in the most responsible of pill takers. You know how many friends I have with bc pill babies?

[Caladan 19]

I don't disagree with the article, but still I do hold the belief that it's much better to wait to have sex. It worked in my life.

But I am not ignorant of the fact that if people want to do it they will. Growing up in church and stuff, at least half of my friends grew up to get pregnant, mostly with boyfriends who were idiots and didn't stick around or went to jail. So I know for my friends the whole abstinence thing didn't work. It could have, but they didn't want it to. I wanted to and did. But still by the time they got pregnant, they knew how not to get pregnant. But people act so careless and think they won't get pregnant. All I see in people having sex with those they don't even love is STDs and unwanted pregnancies. I don't see any positive things coming about from it.

I just don't want to leave an issue of public health down to 'Oh well, they didn't want to be abstinent enough', you know? I don't think anyone should be having sex while in high school, but there were far too many girls in my youth group who got abortions for me to believe that church is adequate birth control. (My church lying about the effectiveness of NFP is another reason.)

And learning about sex from other teenagers means you end up like the girl my friend treated at an Atlanta clinic, insisting she wasn't pregnant because when she had sex all the semen ran out.

Scaring people about STDs doesn't really work because teens are smart enough to figure out from their own experience when they're being fed scare tactics.

[Dr_LHA 3]

Who's advocating ignorance??? You're twisting what I'm saying.

You advocated not teaching kids about the pill:

Yes, kids should learn about condoms... not about birth control pills because they don't protect against STDs.

They're going to remain ignorant about the pill unless you teach them about it, surely?

The pill is not effective against STDs. And it's not just HIV either.

Condoms are the most effective, prevent most STDs AND protect against pregnancy. Why in the world would someone advocate the pill...which cannot make all these claims...over a condom is beyond me.

I'm not advocating the pill over the condom, I'm simply saying you have to teach about every form of birth control. You can't just leave out the ones you don't like. Personally I think the pill combined with condom use is the best method, condoms split, pills don't get taken, a combination of both reduces your changes of pregnancy and STDs.

[Caladan 19]

Plus, pills put the girl in charge. How many teen pregnancies result because the guy just 'forgot' the condom and they were too busy and decided to take a risk?

[chri'stina 190]

I don't disagree with the article, but still I do hold the belief that it's much better to wait to have sex. It worked in my life.

But I am not ignorant of the fact that if people want to do it they will. Growing up in church and stuff, at least half of my friends grew up to get pregnant, mostly with boyfriends who were idiots and didn't stick around or went to jail. So I know for my friends the whole abstinence thing didn't work. It could have, but they didn't want it to. I wanted to and did. But still by the time they got pregnant, they knew how not to get pregnant. But people act so careless and think they won't get pregnant. All I see in people having sex with those they don't even love is STDs and unwanted pregnancies. I don't see any positive things coming about from it.

I just don't want to leave an issue of public health down to 'Oh well, they didn't want to be abstinent enough', you know? I don't think anyone should be having sex while in high school, but there were far too many girls in my youth group who got abortions for me to believe that church is adequate birth control. (My church lying about the effectiveness of NFP is another reason.)

And learning about sex from other teenagers means you end up like the girl my friend treated at an Atlanta clinic, insisting she wasn't pregnant because when she had sex all the semen ran out.

Scaring people about STDs doesn't really work because teens are smart enough to figure out from their own experience when they're being fed scare tactics.

I don't totally disagree. Most of my friends did go to public school though and went to sex ed classes, that didn't stop them from getting pregnant either. At church it was not really discussed much, it was just discussed at times that God would prefer you not to have sex outside of marriage. But there weren't any scare tactics there(not saying you said there were, but just in general).

[Dr_LHA 3]

I don't totally disagree. Most of my friends did go to public school though and went to sex ed classes, that didn't stop them from getting pregnant either.

Please note: Sex Ed is not a form of contraception. Teenagers will be stupid even when armed with the facts. The best we can hope to do is reduce the changes. Education and being in full understanding of the facts cannot surely be worse than ignorance?

[onwa 6]

Who's advocating ignorance??? You're twisting what I'm saying.

You advocated not teaching kids about the pill:

Yes, kids should learn about condoms... not about birth control pills because they don't protect against STDs.

They're going to remain ignorant about the pill unless you teach them about it, surely?

The pill is not effective against STDs. And it's not just HIV either.

Condoms are the most effective, prevent most STDs AND protect against pregnancy. Why in the world would someone advocate the pill...which cannot make all these claims...over a condom is beyond me.

I'm not advocating the pill over the condom, I'm simply saying you have to teach about every form of birth control. You can't just leave out the ones you don't like. Personally I think the pill combined with condom use is the best method, condoms split, pills don't get taken, a combination of both reduces your changes of pregnancy and STDs.

This is just a pet peeve of mine. Why should the firl have to submit herself to sometime very harmful hormones, because a guy just might forget a condom. Female condom is a good substitute. But really, women a fertile a few days out of the month, men are fertile all the time. It just irks me to no end that the female is often blamed and held wholly responsible. But thats why teaching abstinence or a committed relationship first, before casual sex, just makes more sense.

[chri'stina 190]

I don't totally disagree. Most of my friends did go to public school though and went to sex ed classes, that didn't stop them from getting pregnant either.

Please note: Sex Ed is not a form of contraception. Teenagers will be stupid even when armed with the facts. The best we can hope to do is reduce the changes. Education and being in full understanding of the facts cannot surely be worse than ignorance?

My point is that no matter what you teach, some teenagers will have sex and get pregnant, even after they learn all the facts. I don't think that's a good thing of course. It's a form of ignorance to think they can do whatever they want and pay no consequences. They seem to sometimes not understand that part no matter what they learn about.

[Caladan 19]

It's part of being a teenager to think you're invincible. But what I dislike is when religious beliefs are used as a reason to ignore the medical facts. If you believe that sex is sacred and should only be between married couples, surely you believe that for religious and spiritual reasons, and I don't see why you would want (general you) to fake the facts about, say, the effectiveness of condoms or birth control pills or the rates of STDs or withhold that information from teens. They're smart enough to understand the spiritual reasons, and I really don't like the implicit idea that if we tell them how to prevent pregnancy, we'll have no way to keep them following our religion.