I view "Patriot Liberal" as a contradiction in terms.

They are making more voters so they can tell the rest of us what to do. It's easier to reproduce than it is to persuade the liberal minded folks to be closed minded and ignorant.

it's not that the "religious" teens are getting pregnant more, but rather choosing life instead of abortion. i don't think that is a bad thing.

Good points! especially Mary and I also believe that they are more educated about morality and the rights of the unborn and are choosing to be prolife rather than pro death.

Wrong Mary, the pregnancy rate is higher in red states, even after adjusting for abortion.

The right are more interested in keeping teens away from contraception and accurate information than they are in actually preventing pregnancies.

I agree with My 2/100 stated. There have been numerous studies in the past decade or so about whether or not schools should have comprehensive sex education or abstinence only. The students that receive abstinence only do have higher instances of becoming pregnant. Many of these students many understand the moral side of it ("it's against my religion to have sex out of wedlock") but many, many teens are curious as well as do not have correct information about contraception, STDS etc (people thinking that you catch AIDS from a person when you don't; you contract HIV).

In some ways I view this topic similar to homosexuality; if a school discusses diversity and includes gay or lesbian lifestyles, many people view this as a way to recruit. Informing students about safe sex is thus promoting them to have sex when in reality it's preparing them for the adult life so many teens try to live right out of high school or at the end of high school.

"Posted by !, a resident of the Amador Estates neighborhood, 1 hour ago

I view "Patriot Liberal" as a contradiction in terms.

Well, you have a right to your views as well as a right to put people in a restrictive box and to label people if you feel a need to do so.

Why is that? Do you really think Patriotism is a conservative term?

How many Liberals like Garlic as opposed to Conservatives?

How many Conservatives go to church and believe in Christ as opposed to Liberal or vis versa?

How many Conservatives commit crimes as oppese to Liberal?

You get the picture. Many of us have way more in common than not, you may be surprised. Don't believe those that make a living off bashing and categorizing people. We don't all fit in one box or another. Personally, I am a more conservative Liberal and I share many views in common with Libertarian as well as Republicans.


Feel free to satrt a thread on you views as this topic is about teen pregnancy.

Best Regards,

Patriot Liberal

Young teen women deserve options and how to deal with pregnancy is one of them. If teens (boys and girls) choose to be sexually active, then they need to UNDERSTAND the possible consequences of their actions.

Teaching abstinence ONLY is foolish and just out of touch with reality. The "law" permits kids to drive (making life and death decisions behind the wheel of a car) at age 15. If you can trust a teen behind the wheel of a car, why would anyone want to limit their access to the facts about human sexuality?

In fact, the study published in Reproductive Health speculated, after "controlling" both income and abortion rates, that while there may be other "variables that account for the correlations we report," the "probable explanation, drawing on the other research cited", is "that conservative religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging use of contraception among their teen community members than in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."

Web Link

Realistically, I think there comes a point where a parent has to recognize/remember that teen hormones are running high and hot, and that just saying "no" doesn't always come to mind in time to do any good.

When you teach kids that abstinence is the only way to definitely not get pregnant and ignore the hormones that teenagers have pulsing through them, you are asking for trouble. The reason it's higher with religious people is because they expect the threat of God to be enough to stop them. If you never teach them how use condoms, get the pill, or any other types of birth control you're just leaving them to make decisions ignorantly. Being ignorant has never helped anyone.

I guess it's nice that these children are deciding to have these babies, but wouldn't it be better to teach them how to be responsible so they can wait to do that, even if they decide to have sex earlier in life, until they are emotionally and financially ready.

I think the main problem with religion in this is that pregnancy becomes punishment when you haven't adhered to their ideals and you end up pregnant. Everyone will say that you shouldn't have been having sex in the first place so you deserve what you get. And NO you can't get an abortion. When are we going to tell men they can't have vasectomies because of the sanctity of life? I'd love to see how men react to that.