Teens not getting knocked up as much due to birth control, not not giving it up

[Salzmann]

My sister and I were raised in a strict RC home where the clear message was, "Don't even think about doing it". Well, we did anyway. Neither of us ever had an unwanted pregnancy thanks to the availability of reliable contraception. Would my parents have been thrilled knowing what we were up to? Heck, no. Would they have been even LESS thrilled to be confronted with impending grandparent-hood? Heck, yes.

It's a fine balance. You want to preach abstinence (or at least lack of promiscuity) but you want them to know that contraception exists. The wife of one actuary I know started putting a giant bowl of condoms in the bathroom when their daughter reached "that age" and refilled it when needed, no questions asked. She figured that whether her daughter was using them personally or handing them out to friends, preventing unwanted pregnancies was a good idea. I guess that's a little more liberal than I could have been.

I think the news about decreasing teenage births is great. Babies are wonderful but if you have no way to support them and you haven't even started your college education, you have a tough future ahead of you.

[Listeria]

NOT teaching kids about responsible birth control is imo a total perversion of the original reason premarital sex was an act of immorality for girls: because a young and single pregnancy was so burdensome to the girl's family, making risking pregnancy a transgression against one's parents and family (vaguely like a father going mountainclimbing in December).

[HangerAngler]

I shoplifted my first condoms.

[Saint Kepler]

Originally Posted by Lucy

We invite them into our bedroom.

Seeing their parents get it on should scare the hell out of them and make them think sex it bad. Nice job!

[whisper]

Originally Posted by Lucy

I'd prefer that my school not tell the kids they can get condoms from the nurse. I have mixed feelings as to whether the nurse should even stock them, but I know I don't want the school advertising their availabilty in the school.

Thinking on this, I think it would be OK to let the students know that protection is available from the school nurse. I'd just require the nurse to reinforce the value of abstinance and the importance of safe sex before the student could get them.