Outlaw teen sexuality!

May 26 2004

That’s right ban it, make it illegal, against the law, verboten. May is teen pregnancy prevention month. Let’s get real about the problem that is confronting us. The United States now has more teen pregnancies than any other country in the industrialized world. Over 1 million teenagers get pregnant every year and 78% of teen pregnancies are unintended. These kids are out of control.

We’ve tried abstinence only and that doesn’t work – half of the kids fall off the wagon after year one and these are the ones most likely to get pregnant. We’ve tried not talking about it but that damned internet and TV seem to be saying that everyone is ‘doing it’ with 78% of all teenage dialogue on TV revolving around sex. We’ve tried sex education but we’re left wondering if it’s just encouraging them as 50% are being sexual by the time they leave high school.

One hundred years ago this wasn’t such a problem – kids would go off and get married at fourteen or fifteen. But nowadays with the median age for first marriages being over 25 years old, kids just can’t seem to wait to be sexual. They want to have their cake and eat it too! It may be time to take a strong stand.

We’ve tried telling these kids that sex is dangerous – both the abstinence only and the safe sex crowds agree on that. We’ve read them the statistics; Almost ½ of all new STD cases are among young people, Over 25% of all new HIV cases are among young people, Infertility among young women has tripled since the 60’s largely as a result of STD’s, and 25% of all sexually active teens contract an STD. But nobodies listening. These kids think they’re invincible.

We need to take action.  The FDA might have taken the right step in banning the ‘Morning-After’ pill knowing that it might encourage these young teens who are being blatantly sexual but we need to go further. Legal action is required.

Let’s just outlaw teenage sexuality. Think of all of the money we would save on teen pregnancy prevention programs. The morning-after pill becomes a non-issue. No more arguments between the abstinence only folks and the safe sexers. Parents wouldn’t be caught in the awkward position of having to define what is appropriate or talk with their kids about this embarrassing subject, they could just say ‘Well it’s against the law’. Welfare rolls would go down with young women staying in school or in the workforce. And we’d all live happily ever after.

** Howard B. Schiffer is available for interviews and articles on 'A New Focus in Sex Education'. Contact: [email protected]. For more information go to the media section at: www.heartfullovingpress.com.