Passive Pregnancy

No, as long as preachers and pols continue to treat pregnancy as something that shouldn't be discussed factually or prevented effectively, teen birth rates will stay stubbornly high.
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And you wonder why so many of us are disenchanted with a white-gloved "focus" on the interaction of religion and politics.

""I don't want to get (my partner) pregnant but if it happens, it happens.""

Oh yeah, speaks volumes about the state of sex education in this country. No one has any clue about the results of unsafe sex - I image you could write volumes about how little these kids know about STDs - but they certainly know how to have sex.

When will the GOP just realize, sex is not a partisan issue. It's a human act, always will be. No matter how hard you hide it, people will still go and have sex. But of course, we're dealing with the party that would rather spend more in getting these kids in a military uniform, rather than provide them with any kind of real education - sex-ed or otherwise.

Both sides are equally to blame for everything.
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There, I can write it too. Note that I didn't do any fact-checking or specify which liberals or conservatives say anything, nor weigh their relative power in the two parties. Hire me, Time!

WTF?????????

"Conservatives have helped to encourage the passive mentality with relentless attacks on family planning and labeling Planned Parenthood the seat of 'the abortion industry.'"
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Gee, conservatives don't like abortions, that whole "human life" thing. But it's our fault that some 15 year old decides to have unprotected sex . . . . ummmmm gotcha. And it's our fault that people tend to euphemize their own responsibility for situations they find themselves. I could stand to lose 20 lbs--but you know, it just happened. Is this what passes for analysis at Time? Good grief.

I would love to get an honest answer out of grandma and grandpa about their responsibility in all of this. Based on the article it sounds like she got more advice from her teenaged friends then she did her own parents. A certain number of people may not be in favor of sex education in school and want to leave it up to the children's parents. But this of course assumes that the parents will give their children open, honest and accurate answers. Which many parents clearly don't.

I'm not sure the fact that 43% of 18-29 year olds agreed with the statement: "I don't want to get (my partner) pregnant but if it happens, it happens" is passive.
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I'm 18-29, I agree with that statement, and I make darn sure we take as much action as we can (other than abstinence) to prevent pregnancy from happening.

queencersei, it's NYC, there's sex ed in school--I went to HS in a NYC public school, and we had it, and it was pretty explicit (and not in a bad way). The teacher was very careful though not to say that premarital sex was OK or anything like that.

I agree with spob-- you can do sex ed w/o presenting it as the latest must-do craze. My public HS had us learn a bunch about how worked (I suspect less explicitly than spob's, and therefore probably less effectively), the facts about a pile of really gross STDs, and abstinence as a possible approach. That seemed sensible enough to me.

Not being from NYC I can tell you there are a lot of school districts out there that allow parents to opt their kids out of sex ed. I think it is safe to say that most of those parents aren't giving their kids much information beyond "don't do it". Clearly not an effective approach to say the least.

it's our fault that some 15 year old decides to have unprotected sex....
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Insofar as conservatives are responsible for fighting education efforts concerning protection then yes, that's true. It's not fair to use 'our' in this context. After all you might be personally all for people making educated choices. But the people who aren't are rarely as concerned with the unborn as they'd have you believe. Otherwise they'd be handing out condoms themselves.
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I could also make a note that the passivity Ann makes note of is actually part of the human design. If every time we were aroused, we suddenly thought of babies, we'd have died off eons ago.

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You know something spob, the one problem with this statement 'it's our fault that some 15 year old decides to have unprotected sex' ...is that it's our fault that we don't educate kids about sex in the first place. Because imagine this, teens have sex. I don't know how old you were when you first had sex, but if statistics are any indication, the majority of human beings on the planet have sex before marriage (looking for links now) and I would bet a majority before the age of 21.

I don't know, maybe a little education minimizes all the other costs that our society will now have to contribute to sustain her and her daughter. Wow, now there's a thought, a little education, minimize the worst possible outcome (a teen single mother) and then pay out far less in social services down the line. A rightwingers wet dream if you ask me.

"I don't want to get (my partner) pregnant [so therefore I take the pill and use a condom] but if [that one in a million chance]it happens, it happens [there's absolutely nothing I can do about that, except abstinence of course]."
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Is it possible that this remark is less about passivity and more about the recognition that no matter how slim the odds, no form of contraception is absolute.
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Okay AS I do blame conservatives for their relentless combat against every attempt to provide comprehensive sex-education. However, I fail to understand how not treating our children like pariahs, at their most vulnerable moment, or moving away from the days of mistreating the children born out of wedlock makes liberals equally to blame.

I had a comment that got eaten but I have two points:
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In response to this:
Gee, conservatives don't like abortions, that whole "human life" thing. But it's our fault that some 15 year old decides to have unprotected sex
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It's not conservatives fault if fifteen year olds have sex. But if you actively oppose education efforts than you certain bear some responsibilty for the unprotected part. If abortion opponents were really acting out of concern for the unborn, then they'd be handing out condoms themselves.
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Also I have to note that the 'passivity' that Ann is complaining about is actually part of the human design. If every time we were aroused, we suddenly thought of babies, our species would have died out eons ago.

queen, the problem is that in many places, the sex-ed basically tells kids it's ok to have sex. It's not. I don't want my kids taught that. The mechanics, the plumbing, the diseases etc., that's cool. But not where it undermines parental authority, and I do not want any teaching of "homosexuality is OK".

PD, no we wouldn't. You think for a second I am going to buy my sons condoms when they're in high school? NFW. I don't think juveniles should be having sex. Period. Not because I think that kids having sex are sluts or what have you, but because I think that the dangers far outweigh the benefits. I don't seriously think that I will be 100% successful with my own kids, but if you set the expectations high, when they're not met, at least the deviation won't be too much (hopefully).
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Mistakes happen. It's life. Kids get pregnant. You deal with it. I would be a lot more disappointed in my daughter if she had an abortion than if she gets pregnant at 16.

Is sex ed mandated in NYC schools?

Liberals haven't helped either, using passive language to avoid focusing blame on young parents.

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Link please. Not that you will ever respond to comments Amy Sullivan but you are full of fail.

I didn't think my son should be having sex as a teenager; I didn't think he should contract diphtheria either, but I made damn sure he got the vaccine. Unless you can reliably control the causative behavior (and I'm looking at you, Moose Woman) it's irresponsible not to take reasonable precautions against the adverse consequences.

I thought about abortion. But people was telling me, 'That could be your only chance. It's not guaranteed that you could have another one.
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This strikes me as extremely odd. I never heard an "only chance" argument within my circles of friends in high school or college in reference to abortion as an option for unwanted pregnancy. It sounds eerily like a RW / Pro-life talking point generated to scare teens away from abortion, and apparently it's working.

I am just curious spob, how would you like sex education classes in school to handle discussions on homosexuality? It would be bound to come up, whether written into the curriculum or not. Do you advocate sex ed teachers just not discuss the issue or give students the option of going to the library for that portion of class or something else? When I was in high school and took sex ed parents had the option of either opting their kids out altogether, having their kids take a "modified" course that was really restrictive in what it taught, or allowing their kids to take a full spectrum course. I ended up in the anything goes section, but don't remember the teacher advocating that it was okay for us all to go out and have sex. Or condeming/promoting homosexuality one way or the other.

I should have said UNTRUE talking point. To my knowledge, the most universally performed procedure (6-8 week) has no repercussion with regard to fertility, unless in very rare cases of complication or infection.

The phenomenon of homosexuality is teachable. The idea that homosexuality is ok morally is not. (And I don't really have any issues with homosexuality--I just don't believe that it's the role of a public school to teach that it is ok.)

Avast spongy - I'd be darin' ye t' provide an example o' a sex-education teacher a tellin' a 15-yr old it be OK t' be havin' sex. I believe tha' be a figure o' yer overactive imagination, or, more'n likely one o' those nutjob talkin' points ye never bothers t' discover whether be true or no. I'd be bettin' "NO", ye quiverin' mass o' urchin guts.

An' spongy - tha' be a verified instance, not one o' those rumor-wisps tha' can't be pinned down one way or 'nother.