Sex education to halt battle over abortion

THE EDITOR: Somehow we have forgotten all about the topic of sexuality/reproductive education for our nation and have been solely focusing on the morality aspect of abortion. This trend is counterproductive and will get us nowhere fast. ASPIRE cannot make a Catholic see their side of the story, and a Catholic cannot convince ASPIRE of their beliefs.

But we are forgetting something here. Whether you believe that abortion is an immoral, evil sin forbidden by God him(?)self, or whether you believe abortion is a woman’s right to choose, we are forgetting that there are thousands of young people in our country having unprotected sex as you read this. This is a fact. At one point it was proposed that our schools would begin to teach students about safe reproductive choices. Has this happened yet? No. Sven Mikki Grant took the matter into his own hands and made the bold move to distribute condoms to our youths, much to the shock and horror of our closed-minded and backwards society. That sparked conversation, but still no nationwide sex education.

We are still as ignorant and irresponsible as before. None of this changes the fact that they are still out there having unprotected sex. Right now as I type, there are youngsters out there ignorant of what they are doing and they’re getting pregnant, STDs or HIV/AIDS and spreading it around too. No amount of Bible thumping will change that. No amount of well written articles will change that. We need to stop arguing over morals and start a nationwide campaign to educate our population or we are all going to literally screw ourselves to death. So enough fighting; let us all stop trying to convert the other side and focus on the problem at hand — the need for sexual education to prevent pre-marital sex, to prevent unwanted pregnancies, to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and prevent, believe it or not, abortion.

EMILY DICKSON
Port-of-Spain