Editorial by Evan Loveless
Amp writer
Recently, I saw a statistic that said about 1 million teens get pregnant each year in the United States. Something that 50 years ago would have been strongly frowned upon and dishonorable has turned into something that is, “not that big of a deal.” It seems like every year there are more girls getting pregnant and making life that much harder on themselves. I might be old fashioned to think that you can have a relationship without sex but, is having sex really worth the risk?
TV shows like MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” and its sequel “Teen Mom” glamorize the life of teenage mothers and gives the wrong impression to teenage girls. Getting pregnant will not make you famous, it will not give you the attention that you want and it is not the right way to keep a boyfriend around. Who’s really to blame though? There are innumerable reasons not to have sex outside of marriage, but that doesn’t mean people are going to listen. Eventually, I have to accept that I live in a sex-obsessed world and the majority of teenagers are going to have sex. I think our education system has to accept the same reality.
Health class will teach you a lot about all sorts of STDs and will try to frighten you away from having sex, but it’s just not effective anymore. There is no point in telling students not to have sex if they are already having sex. Instead, the focus should change from Chlamydia to condoms. Safe sex, which might be better called safer sex (as nothing, including condoms, is truly failsafe), should be the theme of every health class, so that teenagers can learn to be more responsible and hopefully lower pregnancy rates. Let’s be honest, for most teenagers getting pregnant is the last thing they want to happen. They want to be thinking about college, prom or getting the coolest new phone. Having to take care of a child will take away any social life and will hinder your ability for higher education, as well hindering you from getting your dream job. There’s no reason to make your life more stressful and complicated than it already is.
I urge you, if you are going to have sex please use protection, if you don’t have any than just don’t do it, it’s not worth the risk. Maybe protection needs to be more readily available, I don’t know, but let me say this: Your relationship will be stronger and much simpler if you keep pre-marital sex out of the equation.
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