The words that no one hears

Abortion

No, I didn't have one or anything like that. I was just reading this article about the possibility of it being banned in South Dakota.

I know that abortion is not the ideal situation. It's never an easy thing to do. The ideal is that people will use birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies. But due to the dismal state of sex ed in our country, which I have written a couple of papers on, women, especially young women, are getting pregnant when they don't want to. They are bearing the burden of "morality." Old, "Christian" men make laws that lead to ignorance. Nothing good ever came of ignorance and I don't know why anyone thinks that it will help anything in this case. Until sex education reaches the level that it should be at, I cannot blame women for having unwanted pregnancies and condemn them to bear the consequences for someone else's crazy idea that they are helping or saving someone by not telling them about their options. People who make those laws are not the ones who grew up in ignorance and had no idea where to go for information.

Hell, even I grew up in a relatively privileged home and I had unprotected sex. I wasn't ignorant, but I did spend 9 out of my 12 years (through high school) in Christian schools that didn't teach me the facts that I needed. I didn't have the relationship skills to bring up the subject of birth control and I didn't have the confidence to look for information on my own. For some reason I trusted the idea that withdrawal and timing sex well would protect me (though the good timing was just luck - I didn't really plan it that way). In my case it did, but I was lucky. I should have known better. I'm reasonably intelligent and I have a future that I wouldn't want to mess up by having a kid. But no one ever taught me to know better on that subject.

I can understand people being against abortion, but really don't understand how anyone that is against abortion can think that it's a good idea to not teach people about birth control. It's just crazy. If I ever do start an illegal abortion ring, whatever woman I help, I will also give a lot of information about birth control. Lately, I've been considering volunteering at Planned Parenthood. They seem to be the ones working the hardest to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. The only thing that's been holding me back is that I have almost no time on my hands. I'm taking 16 credits and I'm working 20 hours a week. The only time I could volunteer is Saturdays and Friday afternoons and I'm usually making up for lost sleep those times. But I really think that it's something I want to do and that I need to make time for it. They are about the only group in my county that helps educate young people about sex in a complete way.

posted by Shannon @ 7:50 PM