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The Forum > Article Comments > What happened to safe sex > Comments

What happened to safe sex : Comments

By Rob Moodie, published 31/1/2007

In the debate about who should deliver pregnancy counselling we seem to be ignoring an important voice - pro-prevention.

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Excellent Article. I think that the issue of contraception and safe sex is focused on less because it is inevitable overshadowed by the more emotional issue of abortion. This is almost certainly to the detriment of public policy.

I think we would benefit from a strong campaign to promote condom use, not only targeted at teenagers, but for sexually active persons of all ages. It is likely that there are large sextions of the population that were never exposed to sex education for whatever reason. We cannot ignore such persons.

My most sincere hope is that the issue of safe-sex is not hijacked by those seeking to impose their concept of morality, as has been the case in numerous overseas countries (eg, the US). I fear the introduction of 'abstinence-only' programs, which are somehow seen as more morally acceptable than effective sex-education and promotion of condoms and contraception. Numerous studies have shown that abstinence-only programs are far less effective, and their introduction is likely to hurt Australia.
Posted by Booster, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 10:45:50 AM
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I agree completely with Rob Moody about the clear positive benefits and dire need, (and the need is dire with rising rates of HIV exposure), for reproduce health education for all young Australians and that this is best delivered by the education system. I believe that this should cover everything from contraception methods, conception planning, sexuality, reproduction itself, reproductive time lines, abortion, reproductive technologies, STI prevention and the issues of consent and respect. And that this should be comprehensively taught to both sexes.

I do, however, disagree with the concept that there are too many abortions. I have stated this in a previous post and re-assert that this stance is illogical. If there are too many abortions; which particular ones are the ones too many? Who decides? This logic allows for the possibility of a state of too few abortions to exist. Then who decides which ones were too few?

I contend that whilst it is a social responsibility to fully educate everyone in our society about all of the health issues that affect them, it then becomes the individual responsibility to make the individual decisions that affect them personally. These decisions that are made by individuals are no body else’s business.
Posted by Billy C, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 11:15:54 AM
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I think what they mean by 'too many abortions', billy, is that these pregnancies should have been avoided in the first place.
Posted by spendocrat, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 11:26:55 AM
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This is how sex education is handled in the Netherlands and it demonstrably works. The reason we don't have a similar program in Australia is because a minority of religious extremists [Tony Abbott, for example] set our agendas.

http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_07/uk/apprend2.htm
Posted by Rex, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 11:27:21 AM
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A great article and I fully agree.

Almost every abortion is one too many as most pregnancies could have been prevented.

Rex, thanks for the article.
It is true that Holland has the least teenage pregnancies in the world (at least this was the case in 2005 and before, I don't have an update on 2006).

Not only education is important to prevent pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, it is important the contraceptive pill is free, at least for teenagers and low income families. How many teenagers can afford it?

Condoms used to be free for low income families but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Australian and USA Governments are very good at one thing: denial.
Only now are they 'admitting' that global warming is caused by high CO2 levels etc.
Perhaps they will also come to finally acknowledge that teenagers do have sex, like it or not, and that prevention is the best solution.
Posted by Celivia, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 11:50:34 AM
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Never thought I'd see us agreeing on something, spendocrat! Yes, most pregnancies that end in abortion would be avoidable ones. You have a few exceptions to this, such as pregnancies by rape, babies that have defects (either going to be terminal, or that the parents feel they cant handle), and the odd failure of contraception. But by and large they are avoidable, so why arent more people doing something to avoid it? Buying a condom is a lot cheaper than paying for an abortion, so affordability is no excuse.
Posted by Country Gal, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 12:02:44 PM
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What's not to agree on? Of course you should use protection if you don't want a child. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Of course you can only reduce abortion by so much. Condoms break (been there), the pill isn't 100% effective, so on. So there'll always be occasions when abortion is necessary.

A question that's been on my mind is: is 24 too young to get your tubes tied?

Joking. Sort of.
Posted by spendocrat, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 12:22:26 PM
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Hey Spendocrat. I disagree with your interpretation of the phrase. The language is explicit “Too many abortions”. Otherwise they would say “Too many pregnancies” or the softer “too many unplanned pregnancies” or the most accurate “there is not enough education about safe sex practices”. Rex is in that it the extremists setting the agenda. The problem the religious zealots have with the alternative language is that it implies; A) that there could be a single pregnancy too many, (they believe that every conception is sacred under any and all circumstance), or; B) the suggestion that pregnancies may be planned, (as to them this implies the use of contraception to avoid the natural punishment for having sex outside of marriage – a shot gun wedding or an STI or single parenthood).

I have no problem with anyone holding these personal beliefs and exercising the choices that flow from these over their own bodies. I do, however, have a very big problem when they seek to enforce there personal choices on the rest of us. What we all do and decide regarding the health of our own bodies and lives is our own business and nobody else’s.

Country Gal –I say there is precisely the right amount of abortions. That is the number requested. It surely it is none of yours or my business what somebody else decides is right for them and their bodies. How do these decisions affect you? However, if you meant to say that there is not enough education about contraception and this has lead to a number of unplanned pregnancies that has, in turn, meant that those people are being placed in situations of having to make difficult decisions that may have been avoided with this education – I would have agreed with you. I think you have fallen right into Abbots trap of judgemental language that is implicitly judgemental and particularly judgemental of women as it takes two to conceive but only women are able to have abortions. He never says that “too many men are not exercising their sexuality responsibly”.
Posted by Billy C, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 1:24:00 PM
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I read a true quote one day that said 'only animals, prostitutes and moral deginerates could 'sleep around, bed hop or practice free love' without feeling guilty about it in past generations. Now we have the god rejecting humanist who create the problems by ignoring any kind of morality and blame others for not fixing it. Why don't we tell the truth to our kids that sexual immorality leads to misery. Just because the last generation lived a life of self gratification does not mean that we should be stupid enough to encourage it to the next generation.
Posted by runner, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 2:50:34 PM
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No one teaches the viruses and lurgies about morality runner. Get real! Tell a teenager not to funk and they will do it in spite of you. That is their job. Have you ever had teenagers?

Some with the best Christian up-bringing funk it up the best (or worst).

Show them the evidence scientifically and it will make them think again.

--ah, I heard that, smarty pants, I didn't mean show them your own scabs...eeew...you know what I mean...science in books...(ambiguity is unkind).

The more poker faced and indifferent you are the better. It will frighten the mess out of them and really sit up straight.

We are talking viruses and bugs, dummy, not moral judgements.
Posted by saintfletcher, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 3:38:31 PM
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Congratulations Rob Moodie on an excellent article.

I have been frequently horrified by the number of teenagers (and adults besides) who freely admit to regular incidents of unprotected sex with only a passing thought for the consequences.

And it's not just about unwanted pregnancies, it is also about STIs. I grew up in a generation prompted to action by the Grim Reaper advertising campaign, so I'm sad that these next generations haven't got a similar level of vigilance about protecting their sexual (and in the cases of serious STIs, general) health and well being.

There are several things that won't prevent STIs and pregnancies, and restricting the discussion to abstinence or "only sleeping with good girls/boys" leaves too much grey area for kids who are starved for information and inquisitive about their bodies.

It is worth pointing out to kids that oral sex (for example) has as much risk in terms of STIs as vaginal sex - if only because the rates of oral sex experience seem to be rising in tandem with the rising rates of unprotected sex.

While ignorance is no excuse before the law, it certainly isn't going to protect kids from STIs or unwanted pregnancies either - and if I can't be sure that my son won't have sex without telling me about it BEFOREHAND, I can be sure that he will do so with the full knowledge of the consequences and the best ways to make sure that he and his partner are safe.

"that'll teach you a lesson" is not the kind of thing I would ever want to have to say to my child when they came to me with an incurable sexual disease - particularly a fatal one.

Without a doubt, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Posted by seether, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 3:55:12 PM
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Your logic is amazing Saintfletcher 'Tell a teenager not to funk and they will do it in spite of you. That is their job. Have you ever had teenagers?'
Well does it follow if we tell them to wear condoms they will do the opposite? For the record I have 3 grown ups who have had no problems accepting the fact casual sex is unhealthy and soul destroying.

The problem is not lack of education it is lack of morals. The kids today know far more than any other generation in history. Kids know condoms are available yet refuse to wear them because of lack of self control.
Posted by runner, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 5:29:25 PM
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LOTS TO BE SAID FOR 'RADICAL CELIBACY'.

Lonely, unsatisfying - all those negative human emotive issues, but
no social security problems, unwanted children, child support, or family law minefeilds to navigate for the predetermined amount of years.

Sex, in the purely biological sense, was never meant to be safe. It is a gamble, the genes issue, the lack of chemicals at the time of conception ( or the addition of chemicals such as alcohol, amphetamines etc ) & the great christian/moslem/religious [procreative] context of sex, marriage, forever - 'ness' is all fine and well 6,000 years ago in an Intelligent Design philosophy. After all the earth is still flat, palaeontolgy is no more ancient than 6,000 yrs past, and dinosaurs only died out recently didn't they?

Today... well the famous Marx Brothers quote is very applicable ( I think it was Groucho Marx ) who said: "Marriage is a great institution, but who wants to spend the rest of their life in an institution...?"

Casual sex...you get what you paid for or deserve!
Posted by Albie Manton in Darwin, Wednesday, 31 January 2007 9:11:20 PM
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"For the record I have 3 grown ups who have had no problems accepting the fact casual sex is unhealthy and soul destroying."

I'm happy for you, runner, if your children accepted your guidance that sexual abstinence before marriage [or at least outside of a serious relationship] was right for them, and they managed to stick to it. But promoting abstinence for everyone doesn't result in less unwanted pregnancies and abortions, it results in more. The way it's handled in the Netherlands results in significantly less unwanted pregnancies and abortions and that's what we all want, isn't it?
Posted by Rex, Thursday, 1 February 2007 12:46:56 AM
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The abortion rate is highest in the 20-25 age group followed by those aged 25-30. However it is markedly lower for those aged 15-20 where the number dropped and plateaued some years ago.

So it is likely that ignorance of contraception is not the only (or main) contributor, although many people could be blissfully unaware of the failure rate of contraceptives and place their reliance on one form of contraception alone.

More sex education would be welcome, but at the same time there needs to be a lot of work done to establish why so many apparently well educated women are experiencing unplanned pregnancies and are having to abort as a last resort. The solution is not as simple as reiterating the basics such as that antibiotics affect the effectiveness of the pill, or that a condom can come off and at the very worst time.
Posted by Cornflower, Thursday, 1 February 2007 10:10:23 AM
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Don't pick on runner - he obviously badly needs to get laid.
Posted by spendocrat, Thursday, 1 February 2007 12:40:24 PM
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We live in a highly sexualised society, the current fashion is for young women to look like street walkers, sporting tight clothes and impossible cleavages, as per

from New Words for 2007
MILLENNIUM DOMES. The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from the outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing

It's unlikely that abstinence is a serious option.

If we want to reduce the abortion rate then women should be routinely prescribed the long term under skin implants for contraception. Ooops a side effect is no period for 18 months, mmm, Libra won't like that but then it would reduce the problems overweight women have when they try to get pregnant for the first time in their 30s and might reduce the prevalence of gynacological problems in older women like fibrosis.

If we want to reduce the spread of STD's then its gotta be condoms.
Posted by billie, Thursday, 1 February 2007 1:12:54 PM
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eh, I'm not so sure about Implanon (under the skin long-term contraceptive) - the information I was given (a pamphlet by an Ob/Gyn about two years ago) suggested that in 1 in 5 people would experience no periods (how would you know you wern't pregnant? I'd freak out), and that 1 in five people would experience constant spotting (what a pain)- frankly, an only 60% 'correct response' isn't my cup of tea!

But I agree with the article. I'm only in my mid-twenties, and looking back, the sex ed at my school was appalling - one or two embarrasing health classes given by a middle aged woman who seemed horrified by her topic, which was mainly an anatomy class, really. And mine was a co-ed public school!

Sex ed should be taught by professionals comfortable with the topic, perhaps from family planning clinics or similar, coming around to each school for a day of intensive information for each year level. Maybe then people would ask questions, not worrying that they would have to see that 'teacher' again?
Posted by Laurie, Thursday, 1 February 2007 1:49:03 PM
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Dr Moodie I recommend that you and priveleged others who think unintended pregnancy and abortion are merely matters of 'safe sex', health education and STIs do more homework. Contraceptive failure is estimated to conribute to over 30% of unintended pregnancies. An ABS report noted that in reports of domestic violence over 40% of women were pregnant at the time. There is a strong association between unintended pregnancy and violence against women, especially in young age groups.
Posted by jenni, Saturday, 10 February 2007 10:26:36 AM
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