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I hear the same argument form almost every pro-"choicer": If we increase the supply of contraceptives, make them better, and make them esier to obtain, and make sex education programs better, we would reduce the number of abortions had each year.

To tell the truth, I really disagree with this. For one, most of the kids watching those education programs are either not paying atention, or paying atention to somthing else entirly. Beilive me, I've been to three diffrent schools through out my middle school years, and each time I ended up sitting through a sex education program, and each time I could tell thathardly any one was paying atention (My self included...but thats because I was forced to sit through two of them and refuced to do so in the third. I beilive that this is the kind of thing that the family needs to talk about.)

ANy ways, it seems that these programs spend more time on talkign about the diffrences between male and female, talkign about puberty and horomones, and then talkign about how to use contraceptives, and talking very little about the reasons for condoms and other such impliments. They talk very little about STDs, at least that was my experience.

ANy ways, my point is this. If you increse concreceptives and make them easier to obtain, you won't reduce abortion numbers. Because of the naturein people, if they are given more and better contraceptives, they are given more of a "reason" to have sex, and thus the risk of an unwanted pregnancy rises.

In my personle opinoin, its not contraceptives that we really need to be lookign at, its the education program. It needs to focus less on why sex is okay (I'm not saying it isn't) and focus a little more on the risks of having sex.

I agree wihtyou on abstenence. And I was very suprissed with my first PP metteing when I was 12. I think the girls who did ithad yet to be fully indoctrinate din PP's lies. Because, although they promoted protection when having sex, they repeatdly told us that abstenence was the best method, and that if we wanted to 100% avoid having a baby (Yes, PP workers usedthe word baby of all things) that we should not have sex untill we are ready.

The second meating I atended...I am shamefull and sorry for those women to say, was the complete opposite...(It wasn't the same women, it was a man and a woman this time, who constantly refered to the baby as a fetus and actualy got up tight with me when I aksed a question and used the word baby instead of fetus.)

And they absolutly hate it when you bring all that up. Why, becuase it means more work rolleyes

It more the partents responsibility then it is the schools. If we really are to supply a better education on sex thorugh a school program, we need a board of parents looking over what the kids are goign to see, as well, parents should be encoureged to take an active role in the program. If I remember right, there wa sonce a time when the school only showed a video on human reproduction, and they then mailed out pamphlets to the students homes that they were supposed to read with their parents. The pamphlets contained all the information on STDs, contraceptives, condoms (both male and female) as well as some more informatoin on the film that was seen.

wow, you missed the point entierly. Once agian you fail to see things form our point of view. Every one in this guild is thining it, I'm just going to say it, as nice as I can for both our sakes. If you can';t even atempt to see things form our point of view, then mabey you shouldn't be hear.

Please do not speak for "everyone in this guild."

You have no way of knowing what the rest of us are thinking.

I agree with you on the issue of sex education lacking, but I think even talking more about the risks of sex isn't the proper focus. It's important, but what really needs to be taught is a genuinely healthy attitude toward sex. I'm not talking about the attitude that sex is okay. I'm talking about the attitude toward the decisions you make regarding sex.

People who have not had sex or chose to not have sex are looked down upon. This happens moreso with younger people, but that's when most of peer pressure occurs and when most of your identity is built. Sex is treated like some sort of status symbol, and if you are not having sex then something must be wrong with you.

American culture (at least; I don't have any personal experience growing up in another culture, so I can only speak about Americans.) is filled with movies and TV shows about people having sex and getting sex and desperately trying to lose their viginity as if it is some sort of exotic disease that will kill you if you haven't slept around or something.

That's not a healthy attitude toward sex, and I have met many people who would have made different decisions if they had been taught that not having sex is just as okay as having sex, and so what if your classmate is having sex? They would have waited or chosen not to have sex at all or been more particular about the fact that they wanted to use birth control when their partner didn't.

It also means teaching that when you do decide to have sex, you have to be aware of the consequences and to make the right decisions based on those possible outcomes. Having a healthy attitude toward sex means a person is more likely to decide to do what they should be doing regardless of the pressure put on them to do something else.

I agree with some of the posters that already said many forms of "contraception" are not contraception at all. They do not prevent conception, they just prevent implantation. Do they teach this and what this means while teaching about the different methods? Personally I don't believe sex education is the school's job at all. I do believe as part of biology that students should be taught about pregnancy but it is not the school's place to be telling them if they should or should not be having sex. And by this I mean that I don't even believe they should be teaching abstinince. It is fine for them to say that is the only way to prevent pregnancy 100% but that is where it should end. That is up to the parents what they want to teach their kids. While condoms are a form of birth control I do agree with (not to mention the only ones that prevent STD's which I would be more concerned about than having a baby) I don't believe they should be passed at in schools no more than I think clean needles should be passed out in schools.