PROTECT YOURSELF

February 23, 2012 | Fairfield Daily Republic
Contraception to the rescue
by Kelvin Wade

Contraception has been in the news lately and not in a good way. But contraception is an important way to improve the nation’s health, reduce abortion and even strengthen the economy.

The Condom Access Project began this week. In select California counties (not including Solano), teens between the ages of 12 and 19 can go to http://www.TeenSource.org and order a package of 10 condoms and health materials that will be sent to them for free in an unmarked envelope. Teens can also go into their local Planned Parenthood (1325 Travis Blvd., Suite C, in Fairfield or call 429-8855) and receive free condoms.

It’s always controversial when you talk contraception and teens. Many who oppose such programs feel that giving kids condoms along with other birth control information encourages them to have sex. But scientific studies don’t bear that often-voiced fear out. Besides, you were once a teenager. Did you need encouragement or inducement to want to have sex?

I wish we lived in a world where teens didn’t have sex, but we don’t. And as long as teens and young adults have the highest rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia, we have to educate them in practical ways to help protect themselves.

Abstinence-only education doesn’t cut it.

The Obama administration didn’t cut federal grant money to abstinence-only education because the president “wants people to be in poverty” like GOP candidate Rick Santorum told a crowd last month. He cut the funding because experts from the American Public Health Association and U.S. Institute of Medicine told the Bush Administration in 2008 that scientific studies show that such programs haven’t cut the pregnancy rate, STD rate or the age at which sexual activity begins.

In other words, we’ve wasted more than $1.3 billion since such programs began in the late 1990s.

Worse, the studies show abstinence-only programs have been harmful by depriving young people of education that could prevent pregnancy and/or disease.

Too often, the same folks who oppose a program like this also oppose abortion. But it cannot be denied that increased contraception use prevents abortions.

There are young people having abortions today or are raising unplanned children in poverty supported by welfare, WIC, food stamps and other government programs who might not be if they’d had access to a program like this.

In 2009, the Brookings Institute came out with a study that showed if people did three things they would drastically reduce their chances of a life in poverty. Those things are work, graduate from high school and don’t have children before you’re married. If providing young people with the means and education to avoid pregnancy can help lift future generations out of poverty, then it’s worth it.

I’m not saying to give up on abstinence. Parents need to raise their kids with the morals and values they want. Churches can reinforce this message. And believe it or not, the much-vilified Planned Parenthood also tells young people that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective method of birth control. We need comprehensive sex education.

I have a 15-year-old granddaughter and all of the adults in her life have talked to her about this subject. No one wants her to be sexually active. But beyond that, we don’t want her contracting HIV or other STDs or getting pregnant.

Preaching abstinence shows your heart is in the right place. Adding contraception shows your brain is in that same place. Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: Kids, don't have sex! You'll regret it. I've yet to hear someone say, "My first time was fantastic!" Especially girls. I don't hear women saying that. In the column, I talked about STDs and pregnancy but there's that whole other component: you're not ready for the heavy feelings that come attached to physical intimacy. Those feelings are natural but they're just too intense for immature teens. To simplify, the girl falls hard for the guy and the guy, who was mostly interested in just the sex, doesn't know what to do with these deep feelings and he freaks and leaves. This has been played out again and again throughout human history. It's best for teens to not go down that road. And if parents have religious moral convictions and prohibitions against premarital sex, they're perfectly within their rights to instill those values.

But the reality is teens will have sex. Hormones are powerful things. And if they're going to do that then they should be protected.

One thing I don't get is how someone can be opposed to contraception, opposed to abortion and opposed to the social safety net. No condoms/no abortions/no government aid. That's a recipe for improvised abortions and babies in dumpsters or abusive situations.