I guess it's part shoring up the Presidential candidate's perceived weaknesses and in her case, not becoming one.
I don't mean to be crass sounding but what is wrong with the notion that if you're going to have sex you should be able to take care of any consequences of your decision? I'd much rather there be unwed teenage mothers that can afford it than unwed teenage mothers that can't. Right?
I'd rather the government stay out of a teenage girl and her parents decision of what to do about the pregnancy. Let her choose what is right for their situation. The government has no business in that decision. And the Religious right is the lunatic fringe, do whatever is right for your own moral convictions, the rest is between me and God... DD
Government should stay out of it but then provide the funding for her to have a place to live? Government should have no say in any of our personal lives, only provide funding to deal with our mistakes.
If the teenage mother decides to have an abortion, what housing does the government have to provide exactly? The point is that people should be making PERSONAL choices like this on their own, and it should not be legislated. If the Government is going to FORCE teenage girls to carry their babies to term, then they should be forced to provide for them, right? You can't have it both ways....... IMO, government should stay out of it....let the individuals make their choice, and live with the consequences. DD
Nothing. Of course. So why do these hypocrytical lunatics deny kids access to sex education (contraceptives) and/or abortion? You can't tell kids to "stop having sex". Take a look at the "virgnity" thread in the hangout to see how idiotic the abstinence only ideology is.
I wasn't responding to any quote of yours about abstinence only education. I was merely responding to your outrage at someone treating an unwed teenage mother who can afford to take care of the child different than one who can't. That's all.
The outrage is directed at the inherent double standard. If you don't like the idea of unwed teenage mothers unable to afford good childcare, provide them some sort of education or option. How assinine is it to desire that all mother's be able to care for their children, while simultaneously demanding that no "potential mother to be" take any sort of proactive (or retroactive) steps to avoid the child and denying them help for said care!?! Don't you see the problem here?
When did I see that I don't see a problem? Calm down, man. My original post had nothing to do with sex-education. I didn't know that was what we were discussing. I agree that there should be all kinds of sex-education in schools. I also think that most teens are smart enough to realize that sex can lead to a pregnancy already. Now there's nothing wrong with teaching them non-abstinence only sex-ed. Bring it on. However, let's not pretend that the only reason kids are getting pregnant is because there isn't sex-ed in schools. Again, that being said, I say teach all different forms of sex-ed in schools but I still don't see a problem with looking at the situations those who can afford the kid differently than those that can't.
This is so true. I don't care WHAT is taught in schools, these kids know what can happen if they have sex and what can happen if they have unprotected sex. They don't care. It's a risk they want to take.
Sorry if I seemed steamed. I don't think you can seperate the two. If you want to avoid poor teenage mothers, you need to provide them an honest method to reduce/eliminate unwanted pregnancies. The problem is that some people (cough, religious loonies, cough) are basically saying the same thing. Besides that being enormously hypocritical, it's also IMPOSSIBLE to realistically attain, given the position those same groups take towards sex education and abortion! It's having your cake and eating it too.
I agree with what you're saying here (except for the eliminate unwanted pregnancies part ). I still think that almost all teens know exactly what the consequences of sex can be, even without sex ed class. I mean I knew the consequences when I was in the 4th grade.
Of course. And being horny teenagers mitigates that. It does not help that sex is ingrained as some hilariously evil taboo throughout our culture... I know I was nervous as hell tyring to figure out where to buy / what kind of condom I needed at age 15. And if my parents had found out I bought them....
Are you suggesting we should encourage 15 year olds to have sex so they are more comfortable about it?
No. We should encourage them not to. But also encourage them to be responsible in whatever choice they make. A fine line no doubt. And it's obviously not that simple either. A lot of this sort of thing is highly dependent on the home environment as well, as halfbreed so astutely pointed out.
