Education Is The Key

Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, we can all agree that the most ideal situation would be no abortions ever. This isn't entirely possible, but we should be focusing on this issue much more than debating the topic that has seen very little movement lately. Education has been linked to increasing democracy and reducing poverty. With focused attention on reproductive education, the numbers of unwanted pregnancies would be greatly reduced.

Now, of course, this also brings up a question of what type of education: abstinence only or introducing all methods of birth control? I think that teenage sex is a real thing, and pretending it isn't does more damage than good. However, I was responsible for teaching 7th graders about sex for two years, and my take was always that they need to know the underlying reason pregnancy happens. Since this was a life science class, I spent the majority of my time educating my students about the parts, tubes, cells, and facts about how a woman gets pregnant. There are so many rumors and myths floating around at that age, it's no wonder half of them don't know what is going on!

Once the students know exactly how a baby is made, it’s a small jump to how to prevent that from happening. Of course I would hope that all my students were saving this information for years and years down the line, but the reality is that some might be using it sooner than I think. I do stress that abstinence is the best method, but there are other options as well. We talk about the main ways to prevent pregnancy (basically block or kill sperm, don't release an egg, or make the uterus not a good place for a fertilized egg to prosper). Then we go through each item and what it does and how to use it correctly. We also go over the most fertile time in a woman's cycle (do you know when that is?!) and the joys of pregnancy (mostly we talk about all the pain). It was hard not to editorialize much more during the unit, but it's important when teaching tough issues to keep opinions separate from facts.

So, my solution? Teach the kids what they need to know to prevent pregnancies. Abstinence-only education doesn't work—these kids need a comprehensive guide to preventing pregnancy. Now, if they still get pregnant, there should be a structured system in place to help them with the decision of whether or not to keep the fetus—but that should be an option for them.

-Christina is a blogger for The Daily Vine. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.