I read with interest, hope, support and frustration the article "Politicians, Teens and Birth Control" in the Nov. 14 Bradenton Herald! The number of unwanted pregnancies is a national disaster that there is no reason for except the irresponsibility of both our leaders and our citizens.
First, what we need is not "birth control" but prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Perhaps this small change in wording can help gain support for what must be done to control a national problem.
One needs no sex education or training to initiate a pregnancy. Procreation is hard wired into our brains at birth and drives our life from puberty on. It takes knowledge, training and personal responsibility to not initiate a pregnancy.
We owe our children and young adults the education and training needed so that they can Prevent Unwanted Pregnancies (PUP).
The article indicates that condoms are "82 percent efficient" (they do not work in the drawer!) and that there are many additional tools to PUP. Condoms may be only 82 percent efficient but just consider that, assuming they are now little used, condoms alone could reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies by nearly 6 to 1! This would reduce the teen pregnancy rate from 1/3 to 1/17! This would be a fantastic improvement in the lives of millions of teen girls.
Let's quit the political grandstanding and the useless moral arguments and provide our children and citizens with the sex education they very badly need to PUP.
W.C. Follmer
Bradenton
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