The Consequences As I See Them.
Published by Theresa May 2nd, 2008 in Abstinence, QuotesThe recent headlines concerning abstinence issues resemble a veritable table tennis game of reporting. “Abstinence Only Not Working, Feds Say.” “Abstinence program successes.” “Experts say US sex abstinence program doesn’t work.” Back and forth. Back and forth.
Each side comes prepared with experts, testimonials, expert testimonials, and statistics (many times both sides coming with the same statistics) and asks the public to make their decision, to pick a side, to join a cause, to support a movement.
Each side makes their arguments, and they make them well. Each side has someone influential to quote.
In reference to federally funded abstinence only programs, Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood, was quoted by the BBC as saying, “We’ve been wasting money on programs that don’t work and we’re seeing the consequences every single day.”
I’ll admit that, at times, I find myself a bit overwhelmed from the influx of information but then I read a quote like the one above and I step back and look at the reality of the world immediately around me and I know that, regardless of the statistics and percentages and quotes that the experts use to say that abstinence doesn’t work, I see my friends dealing with the consequences of indulgence and I don’t need any more proof than that.
I see a friend struggling to make sense of a relationship where the physical aspect of it is almost like an addiction, a trap, and I hurt for that friend because there is nothing I can do to help fix that part of the problem - that bed was made and lain in and now there is confusion and hurt.
Ms. Richards, these are the consequences that I see every day.
My personal experience, others personal experiences, may not count when it comes time to reporting statistics and quotes from experts but they do count when it comes time to living life out in a world where people’s hearts are being broken.