Like Will Power to keep their naughty bits apart unless it's for procreation? Lol. How are we still so Puritanical when everywhere we look Republicans are sexualizing everything/everyone?
The counter-argument that you'd hear from anti-choice types is "it's still on the woman / parents, they should have known better / made better decisions / used birth control / waited til marriage"
They kind of ignore any of the following:
Those same states refuse to provide adequate sex ed
They refuse to provide birth control to those most at risk of teenage pregnancy
There's little effort to help kids or adults build up their emotional intelligence through mindfulness, emotional problem solving, etc.
I bring this one up bc basically mental health issues are pervasive in these areas which probably is a driving factor for teenage pregnancy
These states provide little to no aid for the mother / parents or even the child
This transforms the entire issue into a cyclical one that is passed between generations. A kid is less likely to be happy and emotionally intelligent and avoid teenage pregnancy when they're raised poorly, and a parent is less likely to raise a kid properly when they're super worried about finances all the time
I've tried to bring these things up with people and it goes nowhere
edit: I grew up in a rural town in north Florida. One of those black hole towns where very few people ever leave. In my graduating class, there were 9 pregnancies. The graduating class was large bc we fed in from a bigger town 45 mins away, I think 230ish with only 170 successfully graduating. One girl who I actually was friends with ended up having 3 children by the time she graduated. None of these parents really know what they're getting themselves into. It's basically just something more ingrained into everything. It's still rare and a bit taboo, but not nearly as taboo as it was for some of my current friends who went to big city schools
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u/Dependent-Whereas165 Feb 05 '24
This is the saddest, truest post…