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[TheAnalyst]

TAE, you are placing the responsibility on the wrong person. If you feel you are responsible enough to have sex, then you should be prepared to face the consequences. If I got a girl pregnant, then I would have taken care of the child myself. But in this day when everything is me, me, me, and people are given easy options to eliminate the inconvenience of pregnancy, they will use it. It has nothing to do with "choice". The real choice is made when you decide to have sex.

You talked about more than abortion in your opening post, so I expanded on it.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Hate it or love it, but a big part of growing up is breaking up with your first "serious" boyfriend/girlfriend. And you know what I mean by serious.

Trust me, I'll agree with you until the day you are dead that it is more about quality than quantity, but sex is a part of life, and it's great. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people having sex. There's plenty of married couples who get pregnant and choose abortion as well. I do not agree with it as a form of birth control, and I think that argument is incredibly over-dramatized. When a woman has an abortion, her chances of having a child are diminished by something like 20%. The cases of girls who are like "I dont care if I get pregnant I'll have an abortion" are not as high as you want to think. It's just like anything else, there are some who do it too much, eat too much cake and ice cream, drink, do drugs, take 45 minute showers, buy too much, post too many times a day on Bleacher Coaches. But does everyone do that? Of course not. Are all of you crazy Republicans? Well, yes, but you know what I mean.

If you really think your kids are growing up as devout Christian Bible-thumpers, you better call the front desk for a wake up call, pronto. You may come home from work one day and find out little Timmy made an accident with his girlfriend. Teach your kids about safe sex. Don't brow-beat them, because that just pushes them the other way. I know it's very difficult for you Christians to do this, but be smart.

What school in our area has the girls with the worst reputations? I'll give you a hint: it's a Christian school across from 8th Ward. Not too devout!

[LionPride]

Just curious TAE - how many kids do you have?

Thank you for your advice on how to raise my kids, but I think my wife and I are doing just fine. Just ask anyone who knows my kids and they will tell you that they are responsible, respectful young kids.

Will they have sex as teenagers? Possibly. But I can promise you that kids can be taught abstinence as their first choice. If taught properly, it doesn't always drive them to having sex, as you indicated.

[TheAnalyst]

Won't get into the whole serious girlfriend thing, other than to say that there are probably more than you think who choose not to have sex. Either way, if you are going to do it, be safe and be responsible for any consequences that occur. That is all that I am saying. My children will know how to protect themselves. It may not be what I want, but it's the smart thing to do. And should something happen, you have to be ready to accept it. But I have years before I get to that point, thank goodness.

I tend to think that abortion is used mainly as a form of birth control, but I very well could be wrong. I do not know of any studies that show the reason that women get abortions. If anyone does, please share. I don't really think most girls have sex thinking, "hey, I can get an abortion", but it is an easy solution should it occur. Don't really mean easy, cause I know it is a hard decision for most, but you get my drift.

[fleaflicker]

Analyst, you are right that teaching protection is wise. The problem with sex and Christians is that often, Christians teach abstinence as the only option. That is considerably harder now than it was in the time of the Romans. Back then, you were married by age 16, and one didn't reach purberty until at least 14 or so. In today's world, people are reaching puberty earlier and marrying later. A person might hit puberty at 11 or 12, but not marry until age 25 or so. Maintaining abstinence until then would be very very difficult, a more difficult task than saving sex for marriage 2000 years ago.

Also, statistics have shown that students taking abstinence pledges are more likely to get STDs since they haven't been taught safe sex. In the survey sample, I think almost 90% of the teens taking that pledge broke it. It's enough to make one think.

[The Ancient Enemy]

Believe it or not, LP, I hope you do raise your kids to be respectful and responsible. By no means do I condone crazy promiscuity or vandalism, theft, drugs, etc. As much as I think a lot of you whackos are off in outer space, too often the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree. I think Bill Cosby said it best: "I used to blame the kids until I met the parents."

[El-Moldo]

In the olden days, there was LESS to do. No cable, no malls, etc. SEX was important to unmarried people. Many,many out of wedlock pregnancies occurred in those times. It's just that they were HIDDEN alot more. You didn't see illigitimate births being announced in the newspapers like you do today.

[Pale Rider]

True. The unfortunate young ladies "went to stay with a sick Aunt" until the birth, then usually gave it up for adoption. The clothing in those days was a whole lot less revealing also, so a girl could "hide" her misfortune for quite a while.