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abortion, but only 11% of Jewish and 22% of unreligious women have
had an abortion (Janus & Janus, 1993). The number of abortions is
ridiculous because there has been a "morning-after pill" available in
Europe for some years. Why not in the US? Because of opposition from
religious conservatives. To be effective in preventing pregnancy, these
pills must be taken within 72 hours of having intercourse. That means
you and the physician must act quickly. Consider using your physician
but not all physicians will prescribe the drug, so if you need to find a
cooperative local doctor you may go to the Web site or call the
at 1-888-NOT-2-LATE. Remember, act within a day or two of the
"accident" because the doctor may need some time for tests, etc.
before prescribing the pills. Note: Contraception will be discussed
in more detail in the next page below. Also, there are new
abortion pills and procedures becoming available in 2004. I'll include
the new information as soon as I can, but check with your physician or
with Planned Parenthood.
Americans close their eyes to the fact that 57% of all children born
in the US are unplanned (which usually means unwanted at that time)!
In addition, in 1970 about 20% of unmarried pregnant women gave up
their child for adoption, today it is only 3%. Moreover, as young
women today wait until they are 28 or 30 to get married and have
several sexual partners between puberty and marriage, more go on
the pill and, consequently, are less likely to use condoms. The result is
sexually transmitted diseases (STD) running rampant. 12 million of us
are infected by a STD every year. As mentioned before, one out of
every 25 high school students has a STD.
Guard against sexually transmitted diseases
We, as a society, are not controlling pregnancies and we are not
controlling sexually transmitted diseases. Partly because we deny or
underestimate the risks involved, e.g. about 70% of sexually active
teens think they are not at risk (Kaiser Family Foundation survey,
1999). I want to show you that this is a foolish idea. By age 25, about
one-third of us Americans actually have or have had a STD. Many of
that one-third didn't realize the risks they were running. I want to
remind you of several risks we tend to overlook when the urge to have
sex takes over. First of all, we are prone to forget that having sex with
any one person exposes us to sexual diseases he/she may have gotten
from any of their previous partners...and from their partner's previous
partners...etc. Thus, by the time you have 3 or 4 lovers, especially if
some of them have been rather "active," you have potentially exposed
your genitals to various dangerous little organisms coming from a
fairly wide range of strangers. And it only takes one diseased source
within this chain of contacts to infect you for a life-time, e.g. with HIV,
HPV or Herpes. Not a pleasant thought--if you focus on the diseases.
Yet, I don't wish to turn off any of your hot passion. But this is reality.
Moreover, as mentioned above, there is often 10 to 15 years between
