quote:
Originally posted by barracus:
Abstinence is still the best birth control method as that also prevents diseases, teen trauma and ruined lives. Abortion should only be used in an emergency, not because someone is too ignorant to prevent a pregnancy.
If you wish to blame the Catholic church, why are all those families with 15 children not Catholic?
Sarah Palin is not Catholic. She probably thought as most parents do, that if they tell their children not to have sex, they won't. I also believe most of those same parents also realize that expectation is a pipe dream. I doubt that any child over the age of 10 has not seen ads for birth control or surfed the web on the subject.
As for unintentional pregnancies, a little common sense could go a long way.
As for a level of ignorance: explain the now common practice of renting a hotel room for your graduating teen and her boyfriend?
If you agree that the expectation for children to abstain is a "pipe dream" for parents, then you have to agree children are actually having sex anyway. That's my argument, barracus. Yes, abstinence is the best birth control method; I get that. I don't think most teens are emotionally mature enough to have sex, but they are still having sex. I don't know anyone my age that abstained before marriage and chances are you don't either. Parents just have to face this as fact.
As for the Catholic church, I don't blame it all on them. I don't, however, understand their position on birth control, which is no one should use it - not even married couples. (I suppose any chance for sperm to meet egg should not be squandered in their view.) But then I also don't understand moving child-molesting priests from parish to parish instead of having them arrested, either. And the family with 15 kids made the choice to have that many children; that's
one family. What the Catholic church (and others, I'm sure) encourages (or discourages) impacts millions of people.
Personally, as a parent, I would not rent a hotel room for my son when he's a teenager. I also wouldn't buy him alcohol with the caveat that he can drink it as long as he stays at our home and doesn't drive, like so many other parents; alcoholic beverages will be prohibited until he's 21 in my home. (Yes, I know, he'll probably drink anyway.) Discouraging behavior doesn't mean you are encouraging other behavior on the flip side. Being realistic about sexual behavior doesn't mean I'm going to encourage my son to have sex as a teen. I will inform him that abstinence is the best way to go and follow that by making sure he understands how conception happens and how diseases are passed from person to person. Knowing me, I'll probably throw in a few statistics.
