To the editor:
Our teens are at a crucial crossroads in their lives. The decisions made during the teenage years can have life-long consequences.
I see in the South Whidbey Record that Planned Parenthood, champion of abortion, has arranged free condom distribution to our children. It will, of course, be discreet. By distributing these condoms surreptitiously, they are basically admitting that there is something wrong with what the teens might be doing, and there is.
Planned Parenthood would have us believe that there is no way to stop young people from indulging in sex before marriage, thus exposing themselves to the risks of disease and/or pregnancy. Either outcome could destroy the life of that child and perhaps the life of an innocent baby. Use of a condom, while it diminishes the risk of pregnancy or disease, is by no means foolproof. Abstinence is.
Imagine your child going to a restaurant and having a delicious meal set before her. Do you think she will turn it down? Unfortunately, after she has eaten and enjoyed the meal, the waiter calls her attention to a warning in very small print on the napkin: “Eat at your own risk. Salmonella may be present.” You would wish that your child had known that, though the meal might have been free, there was a huge health cost. By offering condoms to our children, we are telling them that it is OK to experiment with sex.
It is the role of parents and churches to teach proper sexual practices at the appropriate time. Unfortunately, there is little serious abstinence warning being given to our teens concerning the dangers of premarital sex. After they get an STD or discover an unwanted pregnancy, it is too late. The only outcomes are either abortion or a very difficult life, either of which will cause future suffering.
Planned Parenthood declares that they will be presenting “safe sexual practices” at a meeting at the Hub. They claim that they will tell our youth how to make “healthy decisions.” But the one “healthy” decision that will probably receive little coverage is abstinence. It’s past time that we call premarital sex by its correct name. It is quite simply a destroyer: a destroyer of innocence, a destroyer of health, a destroyer of proper family life and ultimately, a destroyer of babies.
As caring adults, we need to share the real facts about premarital sex and its consequences, not encourage experimentation by giving out condoms. There is no doubt that our kids may be “hungry,” but they need to wait for a safe meal. It is up to us to see that they get it.
Judith LaMontagne
Freeland
