Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watmath.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!saquigley
From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Semi-Mandatory Birth Control - A New Point
Message-ID: <7543@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 15-Apr-84 14:32:34 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.7543
Posted: Sun Apr 15 14:32:34 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 15-Apr-84 23:38:46 EST
References: <380@hogpc.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 51


David Pugh:

      Given a safe, effective, and long duration (1 year?) birth
  control drug, why not make its use semi-mandatory for children
  attending public high school? I say 'semi-mandatory' because I
  think it is reasonable for a person to be excused for religious
  beliefs, or other valid reasons. The idea, of course, is to make
  the use of effective birth control the norm (rather than the
  exception, as it seems to be now).

Great, just great.  I love these proposals which have no foundation
whatsoever in reality.  Exactly which "safe, effective, and long-
duration" birth control method do you have in mind?  The only one I
know of which qualifies as such is abstinence and we all know what
the enforcement of this one has done on teenagers...

Seriously, why must we always resort to such sweeping generalised
band-aid methods.  Don't you think that teenagers have any brains
to decide for themselves whether to have sex or not and whether to
have birth-control or not?  The advantages of birth control vs no
birth control are obvious and I don't think that any teenager in
his/her right mind would say that it is wiser not to use any form
of birth control.  It still remains true that many don't.
Given this the most sensible things we could do is to first find out
why some do not use birth-control and try to change those reasons.
My guesses is that the reasons are very simple:

1- cost.  Solution: make birth-control free (cheeper than massive
	enforcement of birth control being proposed above)
2- fear of being discovered by parents.  Solution: remove "squeal"
	laws and emphasise confidentiality in birth-control matters.
3- ignorance.  Solution: educate all teeenagers on the matters of
	reproduction and birth control.
4- attitudes: non-assertiveness from the part of the women, carelessness
	from the part of the men (usually).
	This is probably the hardest since there are many people (not just
	teenagers) who know about birth control and can afford it and are
	not afraid of being discovered by their parents, but who are still
	shy about these matters.  The solution of course is for adults
	to help them develop a sense of responsability both towards others
	and towards themselves.  This of course is a life-long process and
	implies that adults and society as a whole must provide a role-model
	of responsability for these people.  I am afraid that this is
	probably too big a sacrifice to make and this is why it is much
	easier to blame the kids for not being responsible and force some
	birth-control on them since they are nit-wits rather than reassess
	our own attitudes on the matter.

Sophie Quigley
...!{clyde,ihnp4,decvax,allegra}!watmath!saquigley