Sex In The Public Square - Anti-Choice - Comments

Parents of teens

Elizabeth — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:01:29 -0700

TracyA, thanks for the link to the UNESCO report, and thanks for jumping into the thread. I hope we get lots of parents of teens and young adults in here to help shape the discussion, but in the mean time I hope you'll contribute as often as you can. Your perspective as a parent and as an expat is especially interesting!

field trip to planned parenthood

tracya — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:43:12 -0700

i'm sure we all agree that teen sex education and prevention of pregnancy is the place to start, something planned parenthood does very well. it's unfortunate that pro lifers see and exploit ONE aspect of their services as promoters/providers of abortion services. i still find it scary that some people particularly in the US feel it's okay NOT to educate teenagers about their bodies and sex. i am living in england now, and it's pretty dismal here as well. england has the highest teen pregnancy rate in europe, and fueling it is lack of education and state benefits for the moms. i've been told that a 16 year old girl here can get her own apt if she gets pregnant, an incentive if you want to move out of house. the dutch are held up as the gold standard as far as teen sex education, i recently watched a documentary where they sent 6 british 16 year olds to the netherlands to see how they approach the subject. very interesting and refreshing. i don't see that kind of honest open approach taking america by storm but that's why we're all here, isn't it???

http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_07/uk/apprend2.htm

as a mom to 3 young people aged 16-26, i have a big interest in this subject...i hope that won't conflict with my future posts on the BDSM threads!!

YMCA field trip

Elizabeth — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:34:05 -0700

I think there's something symbolically interesting about the Young Men's Christian Association taking a field trip to Planned Parenthood. Good for them!

As for "equal time," I'm sure that the students got exposure to many interesting and complicated ideas: women's health care as a priority, the importance of reproductive freedom, strategies for conducting protests, the oversimplified framing of a complicated issue ... That's much more valuable educationally than just getting two views on a controversial question in a classroom.