Palin Slashed Funding for Teen Moms

[Reefer Rogue]

Abstinence is completely farcical, they use scare tactics and propaganda, sensationalizing the risk of STDs. Safe sex needs to be taught, like it is in Holland, where the subject isn't taboo because of the general tolerance. I believe society needs to progress to this liberal stage if the teen pregnancy rate will ever drop, though that's no guarentee. I remember an abstinence assembly i went to in high school in America, talk about a waste of tax dollars.. As for the job of the school, this is to provide an education, allowing students to receive knowledge, facts, the truth. To prepare them for life, the big bad world, the consequences which arise, such as how you'll get pregnant if you don't use a condom or even the pill. I agree that abstinence is synonymous with the religious right and their attitude that sex before marraige is immoral, if they believe that, they're entitled to, but it doesn't make them correct because morailty is subjective. It is common knowledge that sex education is taught in schools. Some parents don't teach their kids enough, however, the blame has to be put on the person participating in sex, they're independent enough to do it and thus accept the consequences for THEIR ignorance, or blatent disregard of warnings and basically common sense at that age. Have they been hiding their heads in the sand reading the bible? Most teens know what's up, it's their fault if they get pregnant/get someone pregnant. Like i say, advocate SAFE sex, it happens millions if not billions of times a day safely.

[flyingimam]

if we start taking away these services and force the responsibility back onto the parents

this looks good to me, but only in a fictional world or in a country like China.

how do u suggest we enforce such a thing?

LOTS & LOTS of these parents u mention are those who get accidentally pregnant and run with it! and many more are single parents who hardly get a chance to see their children for more than a couple hours a day sadly

unless u wanna make unwed pregnancy a crime [which will just add to the shit] or punish it by higher costs/taxes/fees and make all parents take a parenting qualification course and test b4 allowing them to have children or levy heavier taxes on them if they ended up with a child without passing the test of how to parent...

i just know such an idea will most likely result in fall of whoever that pushes for it in the political world! public outcry will be worse than anything u have seen before and all of a sudden our individual freedom and rights become very important and we wont sacrifice them for better of our society contrary to the idea that we currently have, to give up some basic individual rights & freedom for security and safety of all (the society)...

[khronik]

We really do need comprehensive sex ed in schools, if only because the kids that don't realize that babies can result from sex are precisely the ones we DON'T want breeding.

As for Palin cutting funding to those programs, it's not hypocritical at all. If anything, it makes her decision seem even more like it must have been the right one. After all, she knows what it's like to have a teenager get pregnant. Of course, this may all be a moot point, since she may have done it before her daughter got pregnant. It's only been like five months after all.

[thcbongman]

Why would I care about christians? I'm agnostic.

The problem is that parents don't talk to kids about this sort of thing. If they did I guarantee you there would be a lot less need for sex ed. Many of the social problems we see today stem from poor parenting. It's not that I Feel it's bad it's that we need to not make it so easy for parents to let other people do their job.

So if we start taking away these services and force the responsibility back onto the parents I'm sure there would be much more benefit aside from being educated about contraceptives and safe sex. Parents don't seem to have time for uncomfortable conversation for their kids. They'd rather let someone else do it. It's not just sex ed, there are many other services I'd like to see put back into the hands of the parents just for the sake that they should be instilling values into their children. Being forced to teach your child about these things would help enforce those values.

I very much agree with you that overall it's the parents responsiblity to teach their kids about sex and how to have safe sex. The problem having the parents solely responsible is you don't know if the parents know any better. In addition, you are limiting the perspective of a child when it comes to sex education and life matters. Passing them the buck doesn't make them instantly knowledgeable or knows how to communicate properly those values. Heck their parents might be engaging in unsafe behavior as adults. That's why I don't mind having sex ed taught in schools. Prepare them for when the time comes. I also think total abstinence is a crazy concept. Sure there are times you should abstain and that's should be communicated when taking about contraceptives. But never should they taught complete abstinence because that's a disaster waiting to happen, whether kids engaged in unsafe sex, or kids are taught sex is an evil thing. Sex can be a beautiful act.