Letters to the Editor
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Just Throw Out the Promise Ring Already
Ray Sharp (see letters above) already provided some excellant professional insight, so I'm just going to give you a bit of evidence from my experience. I've known quite a few girls who received Abstinence-Only Sex [Mis]Education and the ones that managed to make it through their early teems without getting pregnant either:
(A) Got married very young just so they could have the sex they'd been craving so badly but didn't want to feel guilty about
(B) Had an unplanned pregnancy eventually. Ask them why? "It just happened." Yup, a moment of impulsive passion they didn't prepare for.
I don't think kids should be out having rampant sex, but anyone who says complete and total abstienence is possible doesn't remember those incredible hormone surges they felt as teenagers.
And to "Anonymous" who brought up the "success" of Anti-Smoking and Anti-Global Warming campaigns, smoking and recycling are not inherent biological urges akin to breathing and eating. I'm not even sure it was the "campaigns" that made people conscious of those risks anyway.
I dread the day a president coins the term "War on Teen Pregnancy." Brace yourselves for a Baby Boom!