Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!liz From: liz@umcp-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Birth control and education Message-ID: <1171@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Tue, 26-Jul-83 18:53:40 EDT Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1171 Posted: Tue Jul 26 18:53:40 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jul-83 09:45:23 EDT References: ihlpf.174, <5590@unc.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 32 From: tim@unc.UUCP The biggest problem was birth control. It is difficult to get in a sex-negative environment. Thus you manufacture preganancies where there need be none. The forbidding of sex actually worsens the problems associated with sex, even though preventing those problems is presumably the reason for the forbidding. The bottom line is that it doesn't work; to ameliorate problems you should spread information and enlightened attitudes, not ignorance and fear. If educating teenagers about birth control simply helped the ones who were active sexually use birth control, you might be right, but there is a bit more to it than that. For example, these days some parents get their daughter onto birth control pills because they are afraid of her getting pregnant. This is a legitimate concern, but often the daughter reads it as the parents approving of her becoming sexually active or (at least) that they expect her to be sexually active. Then, she becomse sexually active sooner than she would have if she had understood that her parents really did not approve. The parents, of course, did not mean to encourage her... Notice also that the incidence of teenage pregnancies has greatly increased, not decreased in recent years as there has been more emphasis on sex education. -- -Liz Allen ...!seismo!umcp-cs!liz (Usenet) liz.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)