Abstinence leads to teen pregnancy!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DatGangstaStuff
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DatGangstaStuff

Guest
I was debating with a friend of mine over a certain number of topics, of which abortion was one. She holds that if the Catholic Church would embrace birth control, unwanted pregnancy would drop (and she obviously misses the point of Catholic teaching on abortion) and thus people would want less abortions… I know this sounds stupid, but most people of this modern era will run with it.

During the debate I brought up that the most effective way to not get pregnant is to practise abstinence, which ought to be taught in schools rather than contraceptives, which she denies though I sincerely believe sends an implicit message to the kids “we expect you to have sex, so here is how to do it and not get pregnant.”

She told me that abstinence is not effective as being taught in school and has led to a rise in teen pregnancies. I asked for her source for such a claim at which she grew angry and just said it was some school district in Ohio. I am skeptical of this- does anyone know at all what she is talking about? Any sources or anything? I am very curious.

Thanks for the help. Sorry if it seems broken language- its kinda late and I’m tired.
 
This is the only real lead I could find… Thought I didn’t try hard. Most of the search has to do with abstinence leading to a drop in teen pregnancy.

msnbc.msn.com/id/8470845/

So some ********* doctors and planned parenthood peeps think pedaling contraceptives to kids will lower pregnancy? Okay… I still couldn’t find any links to rising pregnancy DUE to abstinence training- this article seemed like a bunch of biased speculation- I do encourage people to scour the net- I’m very interested in seeing if there is anything substantial…

BTW- is it true that some birth controls act as an abortive agent, killing the fetus chemically? If so this kind of trumps her. She claims to be anti-abortion.
 
I think you can find excellent material on this topic on the Pure Love Club website.

pureloveclub.com/chastity/index.php?id=7&entryid=122

Q. Isn’t using birth control better than increasing the number of STDs, teen pregnancies, and abortions?

A. We should look at each of these issues and see if contraception is part of the solution . . . or part of the problem.

In regard to the spread of disease, it is important to remember that contraception was not created to prevent infections, but to prevent pregnancies. In fact, some forms of contraception harm the immune system, making the user more likely to contract certain STDs.(1) According to the National Institutes of Health, the evidence is insufficient to show that the condom provides protection against many of the most common STDs.(2) Yet the contraception industry perpetuates the misconception that condoms make sex safe, thus encouraging teens and others to engage in risky behavior under a false sense of security. Those who favor the distribution of condoms have always promised that this would decrease the prevalence of STDs. The opposite has happened.

The same is true of unwanted pregnancies.(3) With the spread of contraception, more people than ever have sex without wanting children. Sex out of wedlock has become far more common, and more sex means more babies. Some argue that teaching people how to use contraceptives properly will alleviate the problem. But research shows that “programs in safer sex education and condom distribution have not reduced the out-of-wedlock birthrates among sexually experienced teens. . . . The fact is, increased condom use by teens is associated with increased out-of-wedlock birth rates.”(4) A few years ago in Colorado, one school began passing out condoms to the students. Within three years, the birth rate rose 31 percent above the national average, and in one school year they were expecting one hundred births out of the twelve hundred students. The administrators were described as “searching for explanations.”(5)

When unwanted pregnancies occur, many turn to abortion as a solution. They feel that the “fault” of the pregnancy can be blamed on the failed contraception, but by contracepting, they have already set their wills against new life. Since contraception treats pregnancy as if it were a disease, many people conclude that abortion must be the cure. I once saw a condom advertisement that called pregnancy “the mother of all nightmares.” With this mentality, it is no surprise that the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey said “We have found the highest frequency of induced abortion in the group which, in general, most frequently used contraceptives.”(6) Studies also reveal that the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.(7)

Mother Teresa did not need to see studies. She was well aware of the connection between contraception and abortion when she said in a speech in the presence of Bill and Hillary Clinton:

“The way to plan the family is Natural Family Planning, not contraception. In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.”(8)
 
  1. Yes, the birth control pill can act as an abortificant by preventing an embryo from attaching to the lining of the uterus. This would be considered abortion from the Catholic standpoint of life beginning at conception.
  2. One angle that a lot of people overlook is that the purpose of Catholic teaching is completely different than that of civil law. In society, we generally construct our laws to the lowest common denominator. In other words, we want to allow as much freedom as possible and only impose the bare minimum number of laws that society can get by with. Catholic teaching, however, has to deal with the ideal. What would society be like in an absolutely perfect world? It constructs a utopia, even if that utopia can never be achieved. The Catholic Church sets the standard to the highest possible bar. Of course, people will fail to live up to it much of the time, because man is a sinful creature. That does not mean we change the moral ideal. So… in reality, we live between two sets of rules: one that we are required to follow, and bans only those things that would cause the breakdown of society, and one that followed by choice, but is unachievably perfect.
All you have to do then is ask her which of the following would be ideal… teens having premarital sex or teens being abstinent?
 
It is the use of contraceptives that lead to more sex…morfe pregnancies…and more abortions.

1 Teenagers think they are ‘bullet-proof’ (It’s not going to happen to me).​

2 All contraceptives have a ‘failure-rate’​

This means that while teenagers think that because they are using contraceptives they will not get diseases or pregnant, in reality they have sex more frequently that if contraceptives weren’t available, increasing the risk of failure to prevent pregnancy and diseases.

Abortion is used as a back-up to contraceptive failure…and Planned Parenthood has admitted it! Planned Parenthood’s abortion statistician Dr Christopher Tietze said that within ten years, 20 to 50 percent of pill users and a substantial majority of users of other methods may be expected to experience at least one repeat abortion.

I was Project Manager for creating the www.life.org.nz website. It is a 1000 page resource on Suicide, Abortion & Euthanasia. It is designed to be factual, avoiding pro-life rhetoric.

Our emailing list of people who wanted to be informed when we added new pages included the NZ Family Planning and an abortion clinic. To date they have not refuted or challenged a single statement. In fact, the only criticism we have received was from some Wiccans which resulted in our removing that page pending further research.

Contraceptive Backup life.org.nz/abortionethicalkeyissuescontraceptivebackup.htm

You might also find this informative ‘Sex Education and Abortion’ life.org.nz/abortionkeyissuessexeducation.htm
 
Katie1723 said:
Teens having sex is what leads to teen pregnancies
Kathy
Click to expand...
:rotfl: Imagine that…

That’s the whole point the girl in question is missing. It’s ludicrous - “Abstinence leads to more pregnancy…” Is the most bizarre thing in the world. It’s almost like saying, “Walking leads to more car accidents.”

I guess if a pregnancy occurs, then there was no abstinence…or maybe Darwin snuck in the door to make sure the strongest survive?

SG
 
Let’s take a more philosophical tact, and for the moment, let’s leave God out of the equation as this is as much a human issue as it is a theological question.

Before you could exist, your mom and dad (sorry for the visual) had to have sex. Before your mom and dad could exist, your grandparents had to have sex. Carry this back 1000 generations. Look at all the people that had to have sex just so you could be here right now reading this. Now consider what would have happened if just one of those sexual unions had been contracepted. You cease to be. And not just you…hundreds, perhaps thousands of people never come into existence.

Now let’s look to the future. Who gives one the right to dictate not only the lives of those who will exist in this generation, but the very make up of humanity for thousands of years to come? The potential for bringing life into existence has enormous, almost unfathomable implications. Is it not better not to have sex until one is in a position to take on the responsibility of not only the life that might come as a result of one’s action, but also accept the reality of the potential creation of future generations.

Now let’s bring God back into the equation. There are no unplanned or unwanted pregnancies.
To quote Pope Benedict XVI:

*“Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.”

*God wants us even if our own parents don’t. The only 100% way to not engage God in His procreative plan is to not engage in procreative acts. Hence abstinence is the only morally responsible choice outside of sacramental marriage.

Have your friend read John Paul II’s Theology of the Body
 
Abstinence obviously does not result in pregnancy. I don’t know anyone who says it does.

However, we can also measure the number of pregnancies from groups that have had abstinence programs versus the number from those that have had birth control programs. This doesn’t mean the participants have adhered to the programs’ recommendations, it just shows how many pregnancies result from the two groups.

If one is deciding whch program to implement, and the objective is to lower uwanted pregnancy, it’s good to know which program is associated with the lowest pregnancy level.

In one case, the pregnancies result from people who have had abstinence training but don’t follow the training. In the other, they result from people who have had BC traning but don’t follow the training. So, pregnancies are correlated to the number of people who follow the training, regardless of what kind of training it was.

It’s nice to know which program has the greatest number of women who subsequently follow it.
 
I volunteer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Florida that is pro-life.

Last year I attended a workshop funded by the Florida Department
of Health that was how to teach abstinence to our youth. They are aware that teaching kids that “abstinence is best but here are methods of birth control if you don’t choose that route” simply IS NOT WORKING!

The workshop was given by a Christian man who used statistics, psychology, information about STD’s, AIDS, etc., that was able to make the case for abstinence very appealing. There were many pastors and youth counselors at this workshop, and it was excellent. Of course, when they passed on this information they would also mention God’s laws are worth following because they bring us true happiness. Even from a secular point of view, the program made excellent good sense.

Teaching that abstinence is best - and then going ahead and teaching various methods of birth control is definitely giving a mixed message.
 
Dorothy said:
I volunteer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center in Florida that is pro-life.

Last year I attended a workshop funded by the Florida Department
of Health that was how to teach abstinence to our youth. They are aware that teaching kids that “abstinence is best but here are methods of birth control if you don’t choose that route” simply IS NOT WORKING!

The workshop was given by a Christian man who used statistics, psychology, information about STD’s, AIDS, etc., that was able to make the case for abstinence very appealing. There were many pastors and youth counselors at this workshop, and it was excellent. Of course, when they passed on this information they would also mention God’s laws are worth following because they bring us true happiness. Even from a secular point of view, the program made excellent good sense.

Teaching that abstinence is best - and then going ahead and teaching various methods of birth control is definitely giving a mixed message.
Click to expand...
It is a mixed message because it is being delivered to a mixed audience. We all know abstinence works; we all know ABC works. It is ultimately the choice of the woman. I would suggest women should have all the available information before they make that choice. The days of keeping women in ignorance are long gone. They need to know about both abstinence and ABC.
 
HoppityRedux said:
We all know abstinence works; we all know ABC works.
Click to expand...
Contraception doesn’t always work. 99% effective means a 1% rate of prenancy in a given year with perfect use; 70% effective means 30% rate of pregnancy in a given year.

Abstinence programs may or may not be effective, (depending on the specific program and probably a variety of other factors), but abstinance itself works far better to prevent pregnancy than contraception. That’s information young women need to know, not some misleading message that they won’t get pregnant if they use contraception. Even if used exactly as directed, many become pregnant while using contraception.
 
Those who believe that abstinence is not a good idea operate under the mistaken assumption that people are nothing more than walking genitalia. We have no conscience, no moral compass, and thus will jump on anything that moves cuz we’re just animals.

Uh. No.

That doesn’t fit reality, and thus should be repudiated.
 
Yeah- thanks you guys.

I will read that stuff and become informed so I have more ammo for next time this stuff comes up- thanks very much one and all.

It stinks cuz I was trying to say that just handing out condoms and birth control is assuming the worst in kids- that we’ll just go around having sex like crazy animals… I talked about sexual activity outside of marriage in a derrogatory light and she got mad at me and closed the argument down by calling me a close minded judgemental tyrant.

It sucks cuz thats all I am to a lot of my friends.
 
Well- not neccessarily ALL that I am to A LOT of my friends- but a great deal of my friends do not have similiar beliefs as me, and I’m okay with that- I can’t coerce anyone and they are mostly good people, but its hard to argue when a lot of them just write you off as a fanatic. They are still good people, and I love them and I thank God for them.
 
DatGangstaStuff said:
Well- not neccessarily ALL that I am to A LOT of my friends- but a great deal of my friends do not have similiar beliefs as me, and I’m okay with that- I can’t coerce anyone and they are mostly good people, but its hard to argue when a lot of them just write you off as a fanatic. They are still good people, and I love them and I thank God for them.
Click to expand...
It’s good to hear that you love them and thank God for them. And, God bless you for staying with your beliefs.

Jesus said that we would be hated for following Him. It’s certainly worth it!
 
gardenswithkids said:
Contraception doesn’t always work. 99% effective means a 1% rate of prenancy in a given year with perfect use; 70% effective means 30% rate of pregnancy in a given year.

Abstinence programs may or may not be effective, (depending on the specific program and probably a variety of other factors), but abstinance itself works far better to prevent pregnancy than contraception. That’s information young women need to know, not some misleading message that they won’t get pregnant if they use contraception. Even if used exactly as directed, many become pregnant while using contraception.
Click to expand...
Young women should abslutely know the probabilities of pregnancy using various methods of ABC. I say this because they are the ones who will be making the decision, and they need correct information to make that decision.

Abstinence is a 100% effective method. And if a particular ABC method is 99% effective, let them know. If another is 30% effective, let them know that, too.

And we should let the schools know what percentage of those who had abstinence only programs had an unwanted pregnancy within five years. We should also let them know what percentage of those who had an ABC only program had an unwanted pregnancy in five years. And, for the sake of completeness, we should let them know what percentage of those who had a program that included both ABC and abstinence had an unwanted pregnancy in five years. Why? Beacsue the school systems will be making a decision, and they need all the information they can in order to make that decision.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top