Contraceptives and Misconceptions

Contraceptives and Misconceptions

There are many serious issues facing the U.S. today that require the rethinking of our problem-solving methods. In many situations, we may let our emotions interfere with our interpretations of the facts. When a question of morals is involved, we often focus on what we want and not on what we've got. One of the most complicated and emotional issues today is the subject of making contraceptives available to teenagers. Can it be that adult misconceptions are causing teenage conceptions?

The statistics on teen sex are staggering. According to Mrs. Seth, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, "Eighty-five percent of high school students, by the time they reach the twelfth grade, are sexually active" ("What Should Schools" 6). In Georgia alone, nearly nineteen thousand girls under the age of twenty gave birth in 1990. Based on these figures, Georgia ranks eighth in the country in the rate of teen pregnancy. The Center for Disease Control, a noted source, claims 61 percent of boys have had sex by the time they are fifteen, often with multiple partners ("What Should Schools" 7). Strangely, even in the face of such alarming information, Georgia has very limited sex education programs.

In schools where the pregnancy rate is high (in many schools as high as 15 percent), there are programs to give students contraceptives. Many people feel that it is wrong to offer contraceptives to teenagers, claiming that this causes teenagers to become sexually active, thereby blaming a "solution" for the problem. The most common argument is, if you give teenagers contraceptives, you are giving them permission to have sex and even encouraging them to do so. This way of thinkin...

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...whether or not teens should have sex. It is unfortunate that when we reach adulthood, our memories of what childhood is really like fade and become distorted. In each of our pasts, there is at least one memory of breaking the rules, lying to our parents, or even doing something we knew was bad for us. As any armchair psychologist can tell you, if something is forbidden, dangerous, and mysterious, it is more appealing.

The time to act is now. The teen pregnancy rate is soaring. Soon AIDS will work its way into the teen blood pool. All parents-each and every one-must come to grips with the fact that their children should be given the facts and easy access to contraceptives; the effect can only be positive. Remember, one could be called a liberal or a bad parent by those who can't think clearly, but it's better than being called a grandparent-or a mourner.