Last week, Bristol Palin, the daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, officially began her campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. As the new spokesperson for the Candies Foundation, she was interviewed on the Today show and preached the obvious, saying abstinence is the best way to prevent teen pregnancy. I’ll be darned, I learn something new every day from Republicans.
The Candies Foundation was founded in 2001 and its mission statement is “to educate America’s youth about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy.”
The foundation determined that there are more than 2,000 teen pregnancies a day in the United States and they have some interesting statistics on their Website that should encourage birth control and safe sex between consenting teenagers.
Since women are blamed for everything, they should consider the following “devastating consequences” before wandering into the bedroom with the boy next door.
• Eight out of 10 teenage fathers do not marry the mother of their child.
• Daughters of teen mothers are three times more likely to become teen mothers themselves.
• Sons of teen mothers are twice as likely to end up in prison.
• Less than half of teen mothers receive a high school diploma and less than 2 percent earn a college degree.
Another interesting statistic is the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrial world – twice as high as England or Canada and eight times higher than the Netherlands or Japan.
But it’s not just teenagers having unwanted pregnancies. In the United States, half of all pregnancies are unintended and, unfortunately, 40 percent of those are aborted. The Netherlands, which has eight times fewer teen pregnancies than the United States have less than half the abortions we have in this country.
I thought the legal age for having consensual sex in different parts of the world might be a factor in teen pregnancies and abortion.
In Niger, where the legal age for having sex is 21 years old, they have one of the highest teen abortion rates in the world for girls between the age of 15 and 19 years old, with 233 abortions per 1,000 teen pregnancies.
Conversely, South Korea’s abortion rate, where the legal age for having sex is a low 13 years old, has one of the lowest world-wide abortion rates at 2.9 abortions per 1,000 teen pregnancies.
Argentina is a different story. Their legal age for having consensual sex is also 13 years old. There are no records for abortion because it is illegal. But it is estimated that yearly, at least 500,000 Argentine women of all ages have abortions, placing them among the world leaders in abortions.
Argentina is also a prime example why abortions should be legal within certain conditions. Over the last few years teen pregnancies and abortions have risen in the primarily Catholic South American paradise. And the sad reality of illegal abortions is that 35.3 percent of “adolescents maternal mortality” is due to complications from “illegal” abortions.
Italy’s legal age for consensual sex is 14 years old. It is also the legal age for male-male and female-female same-sex relations. There were no records for age limits or restrictions for the almost all-male Vatican. But it’s obvious by numerous law suits, they are probably living by the same standards as Rome. Well, almost the same.
Looking at charts documenting legal teen pregnancies, abortions and the age for legal consent around the globe, it is obvious most countries understand abstinence, self-denial or waiting until you are 21 years old to have sex is not logical, normal or the answer to the problem.
In most primitive tribal cultures human nature decides when a female is ready for sex and childbirth. When she develops into a “woman,” she consents to sex, marriage and also to having a child. Teen pregnancy is natural for a young women living by most tribal customs.
However, in our modern world, young women have become subjected to male-dominated politics and religion. They have been taught the double standard between femininity and sensuality. If a young man responds to the femininity of a girl old enough for consensual sex, that is acceptable; bring him home to meet mom. But, if he is aroused by her sensuality, she can’t respond the way nature intended and bring him home to her bedroom. Instead, she is governed by guilt and the moral laws of state and church. If she does bring him home and the results are pregnancy, she becomes the victim.
She is the one asked to have the abortion; she is the one who, supposedly, brings shame to the family.
She is the one left with the child. She is the one who becomes a statistic at the lower end of society. And, she is the one whose life has been changed and, most of the time, destroyed while the boy goes on to climb the ladder of male dominance. Why?
Because most parents, church and our society have this phobia about teaching adolescent boys and girls maturing into young men and women safe sex and birth control.
It is ludicrous and abnormal to expect our young to suppress their curiosity and natural desires for sex. Even adults can’t control their natural desires – evidence being, the 50 percent divorce rate.
Statistics demonstrate teens are doing what nature intended anyway – having sex. Instead of listening to the preachers from the cult of Christ at the Vatican teaching abnormal behavior, such as self-denial and abstinence, we might consider facing reality. Maybe all we have to do to give teenage girls a chance to take control of their own life is give every teenage girl a free box of condoms and teach them not to leave home without it.
Tags: abstinence, bristol palin, candies foundation, divorce, italy, netherlands, niger, pregnancy, sensuality, sexual arousal, teen pregnancy, teen sex, vatican
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