It's probably no secret to any of my regular readers that abstinence-only sex "education" does not impress me. I remember thinking it was inane when I was experiencing it (Great Falls Public Schools were ahead of their time, forbidding discussion of birth control as far back as 1985, when I was having my first "human sexuality" unit in junior high home ec) and I certainly think it's just as ridiculous now.
My arguments against it are pretty standard and academic, as teenage pregnancy was not a nightmare I ever had to experience. Only a couple of distant friends got pregnant in high school, and my own scares were just that, scares, and limited to a point in my life during which I had the maturity and emotional support to be able to make the hard choices, i.e. NOT in high school. In other words, I can rail against abstinence-only education, but it's not as if it affects or affected my life directly.
Not so with Angry Black Bitch, whose blog I try to check a couple of times a week, and whose completely unique voice brings a real raw emotion to the topic, in combination with some hard logic to boot. Her sister's mentee is pregnant, and she is "in the midst of emotional turmoil":
Have you ever listened to Marvin Gaye singing The Lord’s Prayer? The passion, the emotion…it stills a body in motion, literally makes you pause and listen…really listen.
Don’t ask me why, but a bitch has been playing Marvin’s version over and over in my mind…since 4 o’clock in the afternoon yesterday…when my sister C-Money called…a bitch has been playing it over and over...since finding out that my sister’s 14 year old mentee is pregnant.
So, there you have it and there it is.
Over and over, yet paused in motion…tears heavy and ready to fall.
Where to start?
What to say?
Go read it. And then tell me again that pregnancy-as-punishment really is part of the grand scheme of the universe.
Give us the words to make people understand that behind this flawed policy are ever increasing numbers of women and children being born into abject poverty, violence, exploitation and misery.
As a white Montana woman, maybe I'm not allowed to say this, but I will anyway.
Amen, sister.