Basso Rumblings

While both sides in this debate may have some points, it’s misleading to assert that both sides of the debate are equally rational. We should be glad that the vast majority of teenagers know that contraception is available, but at the same time try to understand why they’re not using it.

A CDC study release earlier this month gave some insight into the major reasons: 31% of teenage mothers didn’t know they could become pregnant at the time they had sex. I’m sorry, but anyone who demonizes easy access to birth control and abortions but at the same time pushes “abstinence-only” education, this statistic rests squarely on your shoulders.

The next largest bracket, 24%, stated that they didn’t use birth control because of pressure from their partner not to do so. We are failing our daughters if they believe that pleasing anyone is worth sacrificing their health, safety and future. The fact that we give a global stage to a man like Chris Brown, who not only beat a woman but failed to display, even once, a sense of true contrition for it, is not encouraging. It’s not exactly fair to compare more liberal states to conservative states in this regard, as many women from conservative states travel to neighboring ones for abortion.

A more apt comparison would be to Europe, which has easy access to birth control, is vastly more sexually liberal, and yet has a drastically lower abortion rate. I wonder why that is?