From: decay@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (dean.kaflowitz)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: FOCA: And I quote.....
Date: 27 Aug 92 11:56:34 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T

In article <t2bn0+f.ray@netcom.com> ray@netcom.com (Ray Fischer) writes:
> nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos) writes ...
> > regard@sdd.hp.com (Adrienne Regard) writes:
> >>Not in a vacuum, no, it doesn't.  In the *real* *world*, however, where a
> >>puritanical society has dodged simple information to young teens, and 
> >>where prejudice and misinformation about 'the opposite sex' abounds, I
> >>think it does.
> >
> >This is vintage Planned Parenthood propaganda, designed to garner public
> >support for school-based sex clinics which haven't made a dime's bit
> >of difference in pregnancy rates.
> 
> Then how do you explain the fact the in countries that educate kids about 
> sex and that have freely available birth control also have the lowest rates
> of abortions and teen pregnancies?
> 
> And that countries with oppressive attitudes towards sex have higher rates
> of abortion?  As an example, Mexico, a strongly Catholic country with about
> a fourth the population of the US has 1.3 times as many abortions per year.
> Compare with similar stats for Sweden some time.

It's an interesting question, but I have always believed that such
comparisons were incomplete and that the question of sex education
tends to be considered too much ina  vacuum.  I think the
differences in rates of teen pregnancy and abortion have much
more to do with generalized cultural differences and attitudes
towards sex than just sex education.  I don't care for this
process of simplification in which sex education alone is
either praised or condemned based on teen pregnancy and abortion
rates that differ between countries.  I rather think that
ingrained cultural attitudes towards sex and birth control,
and to some large degree towards women and equality, have more
to do with it.

That said, I find myself thinking that the matter of sex education
has far less to do with teen pregnancy and abortion than these
other factors, and ought to be considered by itself, apart
from them.  And when I do consider it apart from them, I think
that sex education is a vital and necessary part of a person's
overall education.  I never do calculus, and haven't since I
was in high school, and yet I had a fair education in the stuff.
Yet I have had a reasonable amount of sex during the course of
my life and received no instruction in the matter from the schools
nor, to be quite honest, from my parents.  I read books about
it (and I don't mean trashy novels) and sort of, er, felt my
way along the subject, so to speak.  I sincerely doubt that it
would have done me any harm to receive a more clinical set of
facts on the matter, sans judgement or moralizing.  My parents
did, through their example and their attitudes, foster a strong
notion of right and wrong in me which I apply to most things.
That includes my sexual behavior.

If Dan Quayle really believes we ought to have the best educated
American people in the world, he ought to be praising sex education,
since it is certainly an area where there is persistent ignorance
among young people, and sex is going to have a much larger impact
on the lives of all of us in general than knowing the year of the
Gadsden Purchase.  And unfortunately, many parents are as
reluctant to approach the subject with their children as mine
were.  I know for a fact that most of my friends' parents never
discussed the matter with them.

If Peter thinks that this is "Planned Parenthood propaganda"
then I can only consider him very unrealistic and something
of an ostrich.

Dean Kaflowitz
Newsgroups: talk.abortion