The Condom Distribution Debate

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Recommended: Danger of having unprotected sex among teens

The Condom Distribution Debate

The topic of condom distribution in public schools has caused many heated debates throughout our country in the last decade. Proponents of distribution state that free condom distribution will ensure that teenagers will practice safe sex and that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy will decline. Opponents of distribution state that free condom distribution will encourage sexual activity and foster the idea that premarital sex is acceptable. Judges in federal court have even considered whether or not condom distribution and sex education without prior parental notification violates parents' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The only viewpoint absent in a discussion of this very controversial topic is the one that holds the most value: the viewpoint of America's teenagers. Teenagers are the only ones who can fully explain why condom distribution fails to respond to the needs that foster sexual activity among young people.

Though I am not a sexually active teenager, refraining from sexual involvement has been difficult. I have been in serious relationships where the desire to have sex has been complicated by emotional expectations. Abstinence is especially hard in a society that seems to promote sex, as long as it is "safe" sex. I feel that the support, which used to come from authority figures such as parents and educators, is crumbling because of the initiation of programs such as condom distribution. It is as though parents and schools have forgotten that some teenagers, for whatever personal reasons, do not desire to be sexually active. I do not minimize the need to educate teenagers about safe sex and the risks of sexually transmitted diseases, for I am ...

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...far more beneficial outcomes than those which any condom can deliver.

Works Cited

Fanburg, Johathan T. (1995, May). Students Opinions of Condom Distribution at Denver, Colorado, high school. Journal of School Health. v65 n5 p181(S).

Gow, Haven Bradford. (1994, March-April). Condom Distribution in High School. The Clearing House. v67 n4 p183(2).

Leo, John. (1994, June 20). Learning to Say No. U.S. News & World Report. v116 ~4 p24(l).

Limbaugh, Rush H. "Condoms: The new Diploma." Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed. Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau, Boston: Bedford Books, 1996.

426-430.

Quindlen, Anna. "A Pyrrhic Victory." Current Issues and Enduring Questions. Ed Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau. Boston: Bedford Books, 1996. 431-432

Sex and America's Teenagers. Washington, DC: The Man Guttmacher Institute; 1994:20.

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