"Dualism" by Cristian Dumitru
I was chatting with a good friend the other day and she used an analogy that I really like. We were talking about sex education and what you should teach your kids (she just had a beautiful baby boy!), and she used the phrase “give them a curb.” As in, if you believe in abstinence before marriage that is something you should absolutely teach your kids, however you need to teach them more than just “don’t have sex.” We (as a society and as individuals) need to teach our kids everything about sex–about contraception, about STDs, about the possibilities of bad and good (oh my!) sexual experiences. Give them a curb, so instead of falling off the cliff into the utter abyss, kids have the tools to think for themselves, and if they choose to have sex, they know what that experience entails and how to be safe about it.
Just sending kids blindly out into the world with the instructions to do as you say and not have sex causes more harm than good. Contraception, in its variety of forms, should be as easily available as candy–literally candy. On the shelves (not behind a counter) in drug stores, mini marts, gas stations, vending machines, everywhere.
This is the quintessential argument against teaching abstinence only in schools and against the binary opposition of pro-life and pro-choice. If forced to declare a side, my afore mentioned friend and I would probably fall on opposite sides. But when you break down the issues and talk in realistic terms, we are pretty much on the same page. This is why it is so important not to split the issue into black and white! In a vote the two of us would probably vote on opposite sides–and yet we agree on so much!!! Neither one of us likes abortion or want women to have abortions. However, we understand that this world is not perfect and women deserve to be trusted with their own bodies. Instead of condemning the woman for the end result, lets work together to decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of women considering abortion in the first place (through comprehensive sex ed, healthcare availability and honesty!).
Related posts:
