Have You Heard of Contraception?

*Hops on soap box* Let's start with some controversy: Perth - Abortion capital of Australia. (They said that on the news) Without wading into the pro-life/pro-choice arguement, it still worries me that so many abortions are carried out when perfectly good methods of contraception are available. Both sides of the abortion debate agree that abortions are things which should be avoided if possible. (At least we have some agreement there - and this area is where we are heading tonight!) The other night on the news, they had the figures (well, a rounded figure) for abortions carried out this year. Let's do some calculations. Last year, 0.6% of the total population of Perth had abortions. That's TOTAL POPULATION. 48% of the Total population are MALE. They can't get pregnant without a lot of medical intervention! Let's suppose that the Male/Female ratio of Perth is normal to that of the rest of the earth. That means 48% Male, 52% Female (yes, we mere males are outnumbered. Better get a BF fast girls, or be prepared to eat carpet!) That leaves us with 1.1% of the total female population who had abortions this year. Hold on, not all females are either old enough to conceive, or are way too old to conceive. I have no idea exactly how many women are in the 'able to conceive' bracket, but let's (just as a rough guestimate) say it is 50%. We now have 2.2% of the Females who are able to conceive having abortions in the last year. I did a quick search on google, and found that 10% of the female population is Lesbian. Now, I'm not sure about you, but I am pretty sure that women with women don't conceive too often. But still, we now have a figure of 2.5% of straight/able to conceive women having abortions in this city. That's being conservative too. With our conservative estimate, what if this figure never changes for this city, and what if every straight/ able to conceive woman only ever had one abortion in a life time. It would take 40 years for all to have had one abortion. Of course, I didn't take into account a lot of factors when working this out. Like religious women who would never have an abortion, or the fact that many women have multiple abortions. (I remember reading about a prostitute who had had seventeen abortions) At the end of the day though, I think both sides of this arguement will agree that 2.5% (conservative estimate) of the straight / able to conceive women having abortions is too much. Now, at the risk of isolating myself from both the Pro-Groups, I am once again going to chuck my opinion into the ring (and beleive me, I have had people on BOTH sides of this argument get very upset at me!) It's a thing I originally called 'Third Wave' about ten or so years ago. (Don't ask me why, I don't know why I called it that except that it was a Third Opinion in an otherwise polarised argument between two groups). The general basis of my 'Third Wave' thinking (in any arguement, not just this one) is to aim for the root cause of the problem. Normally I find that polarised groups have what they believe is the 'better' of the solutions to a problem. By ignoring 'solutions' and looking at the underlying problem, I usually wish to find things which can be done on a more practical level. In the case of this argument, billions of dollars (Yes Billions) are spent each year on both sides lobbying and trying to push each others opinions down the throats of people trying to force them to change sides. The problem is, that in cases like this the groups are normally VERY polarised. Normally so indoctrinated into their beliefs that few ever change their minds. So what is happening to all this money they are spending? Basically, it's wasted. I know I've heard a few peopl eon both sides make comments that if only one person changes their mind, it's money well spent. Sorry, I disagree. A billion dollars to change a persons mind to your belief is money wasted, especially if the other side of the argument is doing exactly the same thing. My solution. Take all that money, and use it to EDUCATE people on good contraceptive methods etc. Part of it has to go to the root of the problem - MENS ATTITUDES TOWARDS WOMEN. I know years ago when I used to do drug rehab, I meet a guy who always refused to use contraception. At fifteen years of age, he'd fathered two children and many of his GF's had had abortions. FIFTEEN! After talking to him, I found his attitude towards women dismal. His belief that the problem was the girls and not his was equally poor. He felt the girls father was the one who should then bring up/take responsibility for the child. Why didn't this fifteen year old believe in contraception? Well, for one, he didn't like the feel of condoms. That was the only contraceptive he'd ever heard of. I felt it was a pity that somewhere along the road of life, he'd never been taught how to take responsibilty for his own actions. (A lot of being adult IS about taking responsibility). It is shameful that in this day and age that proper contraception and responsibility is somehow avoided by youth. The lives he is throwing into turmoil are those of the young girls and his own childrens, yet he walks away without a care to repeat the process somewhere else. A good well funded education program aimed at both him and the girls would have hopefully avoided all the problems. I know there will always be idiots out there, and a lot of them will never listen no matter how much you try to drum the message into them. Still, when 99.95% of all abortions are because people did not bother to use adaquate contraception, you must wonder what would have happened if adaquate education was available. In some places, there is little or no education. I went through the sex education they have in Australian schools, and in year ten, we were given ONE talk on contraception. It lasted about half an hour to an hour. I personally think it probably wasn't enough. Still, I at least caught the message.

IF IT'S NOT ON, IT'S NOT ON!

Going through an abortion is a lot worse than using some form of adequate contraception. Contraception is NOT a womens problem, it is also an issue for MEN to get involved with. Men are equally responsible for ensure that they do not cause unwanted pregnancies. At least with DNA testing now, we can prove who the father is. It can at least add the ability to place the responsiblity firmly on the shoulders of the correct man. I say, hit them in their wallet! If they don't care about what happens to the woman, at least make them care about what happens to their wallet. While we're at it, make them go around to different schools and inform the guys what happens when you don't care about the woman you're screwing. So message for today - stop wasting money trying to convert people who will never change their minds! Aim to solve the problem at it's root cause! Educate the masses and make sure they KNOW what adaquate contraception means! Make the MALE of the species more responsible for his own actions. Make sure the FEMALE of the species knows the concequences of unprotected sex! Men, care for your partner! Women, care about yourselves. Flame away Pro-choice-life advocates! I fear you not! *Hops off soap box*