Abortions: is there a solution?

    As I drove back home with my mother this weekend we began to talk about the growing issue of abortions in the U.S. today. She believed that the problem was primarily rooted with irresponsible and promiscuous young people who recklessly killed unborn children due to their fear. While this may be true, I later began to ask myself what the original cause of this issue is, not just the actions, but what the root cause of these actions is. My thought brought me to a flashback of my recent High School career.

     Throughout my entire four years of High School (which ended less than a year ago), I heard an incredible amount of talk about sex from my peers. What I realized was that I don't remember hearing a single word about sex from a responsible adult. Not a single word, and certainly not a thorough explanation about possible negative outcomes of sexual activity and how to protect yourself from such outcomes.

     After speaking about this further with my father the problem became all too obvious; it is the material, so to speak. You see, the controversy is not over whether students should be educated about sex, it's what about sex the students should learn. Certain religious groups have insisted on having abstinence only education in schools, which means teaching students that their only possible option is to completely abstain from sex until marriage. On the other hand there are people who believe that students should be taught the full range of facts about sex, including using protection and birth control. In the end, it seems that some high schools prefer not to educate their students about sex at all for fear of offending either of these groups.

     So, with a complete lack of education regarding sex students have absolutely no reason to be responsible, and thus they get pregnant at young ages resulting in thousands of abortions. The obvious solution to this problem is to find a way to put sex education in high schools. There must be a bill passed that makes this mandatory for all high school students. Not only would it prevent the spread of disease, but it would save countless lives.