It is an ongoing dilemma, is it not? America’s young people don’t measure up to the academic standards of other nations, but when it comes to sex they are right up there in the top two or three. Take the example of New York City as a case in point.
Recently New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg decided that the best way to bring down the escalating teen pregnancy rate was to make sure that morning-after pills and other birth control methods are easily available to high school students. According to the New York Post, “Handouts of the ‘morning-after pill’ to sexually active students have skyrocketed under an unpublicized project in which health centers in public schools offer girls a full menu of free birth-control drugs and devices.”
There is something wrong with this statement, not to mention the strategy being employed by Bloomberg and, we dare say, other aficionados of the Planned Parenthood education/indoctrination design. How does a high school student health center, for example, know that an adolescent is actually “sexually active”?
Is the assumption made that young people prefer sex to academic study, or could it be that the educational atmosphere of the institution in question emphasizes sex to the extent that even students who might not want to be “involved” feel obligated to get in the game? Having raised three children through the teen years, I assure you that it is safe to say that most young people want to be part of whatever it might be that is popular—be it dance crazes, clothing fads, or sexual one-upmanship. This has been the natural way of the world as far back as anyone can remember. For males, in particular, the locker room stories are sometimes far different from the actual events being discussed, but who’s really to know? It’s all about the best tale.
Back before there were devices and chemicals readily available in schools, the stories were, for the most part, exaggerated fabrication. Today this is not the case. There is an open-ended invitation in many high schools and even middle schools to simply obtain birth control and go for it. The no holds barred, no questions asked attitude of far too many adults paves the way for sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, and even death among our adolescents. The high price of having promiscuous liaisons never seems to be part of the lesson plan.
Professor Helen Alvare, among others, echoes these sentiments when she suggests that the pro-life movement will never succeed in ending abortion if it does not first address the underlying cause of pregnancy. According to LifeSiteNews, “‘We need to reconnect’ physical intimacy with having children in people’s minds, so they know that what they’re doing ‘has meaning.’” This point is not only accurate, but verifiable. In a study published online in the November 30 issue of Human Reproduction, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found “that women did not have a clear understanding of the age at which fertility begins to decline.” LifeSiteNews continues, “Women in such liberal publications as Slate and The New Republic—both decidedly outside the pro-life camp—have noted the disappointment of women who learned too late the error of the feminist slogan, ‘You can have it all.’” Those who, for years, have routinely used birth control to ensure only sexual satisfaction and eliminate the possibility of a child are now feeling the emptiness that is the only fruit they can bear.
The bottom line is decidedly obvious, though consistently ignored. If we want to actually fix the problem, we can. All we have to do as a nation is understand that young people need to become proficient in reading, writing, and math in order to be prepared for success. They do not need proficiency in birth control, sexual technique, and the location of the nearest abortion mill.