So here’s a little follow-up on what has been my most commented on post to date.

Sid, awesome frequent commenter, blogger and co-producer of Archangel, had this to say, “I think another avenue of attack on abortion is addition to reducing the number of unwanted children (through adoption), we could also work to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.”

Pinakidion aka John aka Bear aka my best friend from High School said this, “Part of that infrastructure (caring for children that would otherwise be aborted) would also be much more pregnancy prevention programs.”

These are great points. If we’re interested in reducing the number of abortions, then key to that would be reducing pregnancies in the first place. For some reason this seems to be a controversial idea, or at least the most logical ways to do this are.

First – All schools should be teaching abstinence. This has zero to to with my faith or morals and everything to do with the fact that it is the only one-hundred percent proven effective way to avoid diseases and little copies of yourself.

Second – Condoms should be made readily available to everyone, everywhere, for free. Other forms of birth control (like the various pills) should be (and I think are) already available at various health care providers. Given that there are possible medical ramifications with using those, I don’t know that there should be bowlfuls of those at the school nurse’s office (I know, I know, schools don’t have nurses any more, they should), but have freakin’ condom dispensers in the boys and girls bathrooms of every public high school everywhere. Knowledge in the use and proper storage of them should also be disseminated (hah).

Does this send mixed messages? I can see where you might think so. The fact is though that teens are continuing to have sex. The numbers of those having sex are going down and it looks like the numbers who use condoms are going up which are both good trends. I’d like to see that continue. I think education and access are keys to that.

This, “Ninety percent of publicly funded family planning clinics counsel clients younger than 18 about abstinence and the importance of communicating with parents about sex.” should increase to 100%.

This, “Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia explicitly allow all minors to consent to contraceptive services without a parent’s involvement (as of August 2006).” should be all fifty states.

If we require parental consent, teens use more risky methods. That’s bad. We should still be encouraging them to talk to their parents though, especially because all the birth control in the world doesn’t help with the emotional/spiritual questions and implications.

It’s very simple. In other developed countries the pregnancy rate among teens is lower. In those other countries they are less worried about the supposed moral implications of their teens having sex and more worried about the very real physical implications. It’s not an either or thing. We can work on teaching moral implications, but we also need to do whatever we can to prevent the physical implications.