What is up with people who want to slam an organization that wants our kids to think very carefully before engaging in sex while they are in junior high/high school (“Say no to religious zealots in schools” in the July 4 edition of the Gazette)?
It seems to me that the Pregnancy Care Centre deserves our thanks, not our condemnation! After all, no one wants to see the numbers of teenage pregnancies and abortions drop more. They are the ones on the front-lines, assisting young people who do not want to have abortions, and counselling those who have had abortions and who may be dealing with grief or guilt. Respectfully, if you want to start throwing the results of studies out there Mr. Fevin, I suggest you check with the statistics from our own government. Approximately 100,000 abortions are taking place per year in Canada. How about sexually transmitted diseases? According to the Canadian government, sexually transmitted diseases have been increasing since the 1990s, with no sign of slowing – http://bit.ly/1FXKvz8.
While the cost to taxpayers for health care is staggering, of even greater concern is the lingering mental and physical pain that our youth experience (who, by the way, have the highest rates of these diseases according to the above website), and yet the attacks on groups who attempt to educate our children about the dangers of sexual activity before our children have physically, mentally, and emotionally matured continues! I just don’t get it.
In addition, Mr. Fevin, your fear mongering about people who have “out-dated, religious based views” of morality and our children not having a choice about their sexual activity – I assume because the Pregnancy Care Centre recommends that not having sex is the only sure way to avoid getting pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease – is ridiculous! I don’t know if you have any teenagers, Mr. Fevin, but I assure you that teenagers find a way to do exactly what they want to do in this day and age, and the Pregnancy Care Centre will not be present to tell them they can’t! The only hope we have is to educate our children, with graphic details! That way they know of the possible consequences of engaging in sexual activity before they reach adulthood.
This sort of teaching has nothing to do with making sex “dirty.” I am not sure where you got that idea! It has everything to do with presenting fact-based, logical explanations of the consequences of their actions, in exactly the same way that we teach our teenagers not to drink and drive.
D. Martin, St. Albert
