Okay where to start on this issue, first let me say I have NOT read any other replies yet. What I do feel is very telling in the numbers. We have taught abstinence in the schools and for the first time in 12 years the number of teen pregnancies is on the rise. Until roughly two years ago the group with the highest number of new HIV positive cases was teen girls. I think we have time and again demonstrated that whenever there is a high level of clear concise and accurate sexual information for our children the number of std's goes down, the number of teen pregnancies goes down, the longer children wait to have sex, and I think truly ultimately the more fulfilling and rewarding their sex lives are when they DO choose to initiate sex. I think the most frustrating thing for my partner, who is a teacher, is to have girls in their early teen years coming up to ask her questions about their bodies because they have had no education, and her very frustratedly coming home screaming about why she is forbidden at times to answer even the simplest questions. I admit that on a few occasions I know she's gone out of her way to do her best to point them in the right direction be it books at the local library or whatever. It's absolutely infuriating, I admit we keep our daughter as fully informed as her mind and heart could possibly want and I do think and feel she's better for it, and hope that through her life it will give her joy. SOOOO long reply but I am VERY passionate about wanting our children to be as informed and safe as they possibly could.
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