So how, then DO we deal with teenage sexuality? I do know that some girls remain virgins through high school and even college, even in this day and age. But many don't, I agree.
But should we be accepting the idea of abortion as an acceptable form of birth control -- oops, we slipped up, wipe the thing out and start over?
Whatever your view on the rights, if any, a fetus should have, I think there is a broader social issue of the diminishing societal commitment to the sanctity of life. I personally believe that the "true" liberal should be opposed to abortion on demand for two reasons. First, because of the diminution in the recognition of the sanctity of life, which carries over to such areas as the death penalty (if it's okay to abort innocent pre-babies, it should be okay for society to "abort" really bad people) to euthanasia to lots of other more complex areas. Second, because it teaches an increased laxity in making the connection between one's actions and their consequences. We're already losing a lot of that with the litigous society that needs to find somebody else to blame for whatever goes wrong with us (getting scalded opening a hot styrofoam cup of coffee by holding it between your legs is McDonald's fault, not your stupidity that you should pay for yourself), and in our schools we have almost completely eliminated the principle of individual responsibility (we won't let kids fail because it might hurt their self-esteem). Abortion on demand simply feeds into this cycle.
It's easy to say "just say no." But there are powerful reasons for society supporting a move back toward that belief. |
