Proper education is a powerful weapon to attack the wave of unwanted pregnancies.

Education is a right that can’t be denied to any citizen; however, actual educational procedures must be closely monitored by a supervisor to assure of a high quality education. In Mexico, education is guaranteed by the third article of the Constitution, which is: “The education imparted by the Federal State shall be designed to develop harmoniously all the faculties of the human being and shall foster in him at the same time a love of country and a consciousness of international solidarity, in independence and justice.” In spite of this, a lot of children that live in unknown regions don’t receive proper instruction, causing incorrect interpretation of such delicate themes as it is sexuality.
Years ago, sexuality was an issue that couldn’t be spoke about in school, or even in the house. It was said to be inappropriate and impolite to talk about it, and as a consequence, a lot of young people received a wrong idea of what sexuality is and how delicately this theme must me explained to avoid future mistakes.
For a lot of years, Mexican government has tried to construct appropriate study guides to teach young people the extensive list of alternatives that exist to prevent pregnancies, STD’s and many other consequences that the lack of proper and correct education of this matter could bring.
They not only construct school plans, but they also organize campaigns that teach adolescents the importance of understanding their sexuality, getting a correct sexual identity and always protecting themselves and their partner. Some examples of these campaigns could be the free contraceptives that can be acquired in any Social Health establishment.
Fortunately, government actually managed to have very complete study plans that give a proper guide to the respective manager of the class and that tells him/her how to teach young students a correct sexual education to avoid the wave of unwanted pregnancies and the every time more common STD’s.
If these measures continue, a radical change will be observed in our society. This is because, as we all know, education is the base of any civilized organization.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Constitution_of_1917#Article_3

Adoption as an alternative of abortion

Adoption as an alternative of abortion

Finding yourself pregnant may crate two very different emotions: if it was planed having a baby creates a feeling of full joy. It could be one of the most amazing feelings a human will ever have. If the pregnancy was not planned you may be frightened for you and your baby´s future. This kind of frustration may lead to decision that will affect you for the rest of your life.

If you are unmarried and find yourself pregnant you are going to have to face one of the most important decisions of your life. Fortunately they are many options available.

The first option is abortion; you may think is the easier and quicker solution to get rid of you “problem” , but this solution may have a lot of repercussions. Abortion may cause you serious permanent damages in psychological and psychological ways. Abortion may create a feeling of regret that will never fade away and will change the way you interact with others. This guilt may drive you insane. The effects on your physical health may be really serious especially if the abortion was executed in a hospital where the equipment is of poor quality. These effects may cause your death.

The second option is giving your baby for adoption. This method permits to save the baby´s life and to give a woman the possibility of conceiving a child the happiness of motherhood. In this era we have many adoption options, one of the most popular option in all the world is the adoption where woman can watch the child grow up by receiving pictures and visits with the baby, this type of adoption is call “open adoption”, this type permits the woman to make sure that their baby is in good hands and her sacrifice was worth it.

The table aged shows the difference between adoption and abortion.

adoption	Abortion
Your pregnancy ends with life	Ends with death
You can feel good and positive about the choice	You may feel guilt and shame about your choice
You will remember giving birth	You will remember taking a life
You will have plenty of time to plan you and your baby´s future.	Abortion is final ; you can´t go back on your decision.
You can hold, name, and love your baby.	You will never know or treasure you baby
You can have continued contact with your bay.	You will miss the opportunity to see your child develop

With this table people with this situation may compare and made a wise decision base on their values and needs. People around you may interfere on your decision, many people may think “A really caring mother would never give up her child and you don´t deserve to be a mother if you choose adoption.” - (Americanadoptions.com) but many people do not understand that women that use this alternative are acting unselfishly. They are placing their baby´s needs before their own needs. This decision is a really difficult sacrifice.

Adoption agencies may help women to deal with this hard and painful process.” A private agency founded on the belief that lives of children can be bettered through adoption, provides safe adoption services to children, birth parents and adoptive families by educating , supporting and coordinating necessary services for adoption throughout the united states” – (americanadoptions.com) this agency not only gives legal advice nut they also help with the dealing of regret.

Adoption may be a solution at any age. “Teen pregnancy is one of the most difficult experiences a young person might ever face when it interrupts school to other plans. It can create an emotional crisis resulting in feelings of shame and fear, and it may appear that you will crumble under pressures in your environments”. - (teenpregnancy.com). Even though teenagers have these feelings, they have to be analyzed well before making this decision. Deciding based only on an impulse is foolish because the decision may change the rest of your life. It is important to carefully check all the options possible and try to give you the opportunity to make the best informed decision possible.

Bibliography:

www.teenpregnancy.com

www.americanadoptions.com

Stephie Avila Perez

The Prevention of STDs in Teenagers and Young Adults

3er Post

Mass media makes programs to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and human immunodeficiency virus, among adolescents and young adults.

Children are forced to grow up so fast that, teens think about sexual relations at a very early age. There have been cases, of girls as young as 12 and 13 that have been pregnant by boys of the same age or higher. At an early age people don’t think about consequences and they are very impressionable.

Media have shown young people that such acts (sex) are normal at a young age. Media, such as television, movies, magazines and internet, have influenced the acts of teenagers. As a result of the changes in adolescent behavior, STD rates have increased.

A sexually transmitted disease (STD), also known as sexually transmitted infection (STI) or venereal disease (VD), is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans or animals by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex.

While in the past, these illnesses have mostly been referred to as STDs or VD, in recent years the term sexually transmitted infection (STI) has been preferred, as it has a broader range of meaning; a person may be infected, and may potentially infect others, without showing signs of disease. Some STIs can also be transmitted via the use of IV drug needles after its use by an infected person, as well as through childbirth or breastfeeding. Sexually transmitted infections have been well known for hundreds of years. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexually_transmitted_disease First Link)

Many groups are making new projects to teach teenagers how to take care of themselves and give them advice when they are going to have a sexual relationship. These associations give lectures to different schools, beginning in middle school, so that young people can be alert about STDs or HIV.

Many schools have classes about sexual health. In these classes students learn ways to prevent infections, for example: abstinence, condoms, and many other contraceptive methods.

These projects that are made to prevent STDs and HIV in young people are usually based on education, communication, and activities. These projects are made so teenagers can think before acting or before they think about having sex and so they can prevent a disease.

Years ago these projects were not seen in schools. That is why years ago there were a lot of pregnancies and infections; it is not saying that today these kinds of situations are not seen. It’s just that in this epoch, schools have more information and sexuality has been more appropriately presented to teenagers.

There are two kinds of media, the one that transmits information that can be considered trash, and the media that brings information that can be used to educate people. Mass media is helping society´s concerns about teen pregnancy and STDs all over the world.

Luis Ramos

4BB semester

Politics against abortion

Politics against abortion

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. Today, politics is the way people rule societies and also complements its need to function better. Every so often, societies create new laws so that their members can develop in a safe way. This is the case with abortion, which seems to be damaging society and threatening young mothers, and because of this we need to create new regulations that control the number of abortions and the reasons why is it practiced.
Abortion has been an illegal practice for years, older societies condemned women who practiced it with diverse punishments that depended on the laws that ruled their territory. These punishments could be death, prison time, torture, and the Church´s disapproval.
Very few countries really permit abortion, and even though it is “accepted”, the women who are willing to practice it must meet with certain requirements that are very difficult to gather. In Mexico, for example, abortion is only permitted when the baby is in danger or when the mother´s health is in extreme risk, and in this case the baby’s health must have the doctor’s preference.
Today, abortions will be practiced, if illegally, in clandestine clinics. Illegal clinics are a danger to the mother’s health because they risk their physical integrity and may cause damages such as infertility, excessive bleeding, and infections. Also, the “doctors” in these clinics use the cruelest methods to extract the fetus from the mother´s belly.
To legalize abortion many proposals have to be made, and the senate chamber would have to pass through a lot of exhausting sessions to leave everyone satisfied with their resolutions.
With the abortion legalization in our legislation, a lot of problems could be avoided and doubts could be answered.

Many needs must be met before the approval of abortion

Many needs must be met before the approval of abortion.

Our actual society is made up of many aspects such as the cultural, environmental, religious and legal. All of these traits compose the social life as we know ittoday. Each and every one of them has a special and specific role among our lives, this means that if one fails, the others will be unbalanced; this leads us to affirm that before abortion´s approval, needs of every one of the previous issues should be covered and evaluated for a better social convenience.

A country’s culture may be a passage for other ideologies to combine and form new ways of thinking, or it may also be an impediment for the exchange of ideas and knowledge, so the perfect way to put culture on our side is to make people to comprehend the pros and cons of abortion and let them decide whether it will bring a good or bad consequence.

Religion is known as one of the most controversial issues today. More probably, it will be very hard to even put the abortion approval in discussion because of Church’s moral law. But it happens with every aspect of our lives, if most of our ideologies change, most probably this will make the ones that still haven’t changed to consider it.

Environmentally, the adaptation of nearly every society should be easy. All we need is the appropriate infrastructure and installations that permit us to practice a safe and risk-free abortion. All these could be accomplished with a special budget assigned by the federal government to every state.

All these will provoke our law to change for a better coexistence among the members of society. If we manage to carry out all these issues correctly, we will achieve a change that not only will benefit our society, but also will improve our ideology.

All of the previous aspects have the same importance and can be understood with one expression, even though they can be evaluated separately: We all live in our environment and follow an established culture with laws to protect us and our beliefs.

This means that we bond all these aspects in our daily activities and ideologies, so for the abortion to be approved, we can’t only worry about creating a law that prohibits or permits it and punishes the one who does otherwise. Instead, we must worry about preparing our society in all the possible aspects to facilitate the better approval of a totally misunderstood procedure as is abortion.

Excessive Chastity Obsession / Parent´s Denial Of Sexual Education As A Cause Of Teen Pregnancy And STDs(second post)

The world that we live in is a hyper-sexed society. Every minute in any of the mass media, we may found at least two or three commercials with any type of sexual images."sex, sex , sex is all we watch. listen to and read about" VH1 declares on their introduction to a documentary about this new cultural momevent, called "The new virginity". Where they also state that the current generation of kids are more sexually aware. VH1 researchhow many sexual images were found on a daily basis and found that 38 thousand pictures appeard every day only in programs created for teenagers."This is the strongest evidence yet that the sexual content of television programs encourages adolescents to initiate sexual intercourse and other sexual activities,......" said Rebecca Collins, a RAND psychologist.(perentingteens.about.com/od/teensexuality/)

This is one reason for the creation of this new cultural movement, "the new virginity", many experts said that this movement is like the sexual revolution but in reverse. This movement also sells sexuality but on a cleaner and healthier way.

This cultural movement is concentrated in pop culture, because of its main audience, which is usually teenagers. The main ambassadors of this movement are many of the disney star. The firsts ones to claim their sexual purity were the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. They told their fans that they got this ring which they call "purity ring", this ring is a promise to God to maintain virginity until marrige. This "new purity" is also celebrated by a "purity gala". The gala celebrated in most of the United States.In this gala, girls, whose may range from 9 and up, promise their fathers to maintain purity until marriage. Purity in this gala means that they their fathers to maintain virginity until they get marriade, and to have good values.

Many parents only allow their children to follow celebrities with "good moral values", like Disney stars and other pop culture icons that claim to be pure and given a good example to their children."Which parent would not like a kid who is pure and obey their parents"said by the presenter in the VH1 documentary.Currently there are many commercials items related to virginity and saving one´s self until marriage, from jewelry to clothing and Iphone applications, so purity has become a profictable business.

This cultural movement gives so much preassure to media people that with any normal mistake they are judged as if they killed someone. These movements have created so much "sexual restriction" that many parents think to veto programs with sexual content, they prohibit their kids from watching TV shows and movies with actors who do not promote themselves having a clean and moral image. Most of these overly protective parents do not want their children to know anything about sex.

Parental dissaproval of sexual education may cause children a lot of problems. These problems can include early mariige, STDs , and unwanted pregnancies. "Sex education is an important part of effective HIV prevention.....people acquire knowledge and develop skills that they can use to protect and promote their sexual health..."(avert.org/anstinence.htm) As said in this article , sexual education prevents not only HIV but many other mortal diseases, saving thousands of lives per year. To be more precise only in USA "15,244 per year; 1,270 per month, 293 per week, 41 per day and 1 per hour"(wrongdiagnosis.com) So imagine how many lives are ended in the entire world for this lack of sexual basis issues.

A psycological institution examined whether teenagers reaction to all the sexual images they watch on tv added to their lack of sexual education. "The issue here is clearly that we have a lot of teenagers who are having sex, but they aren´t careful enough at contraception to avoid pregnancy....."says Sarah Brown, executive director of National Campaing For the prevention of teens.(Usatoday.com)Teens not knowing or being careful with sexual intercourse is a result of the lack of sexual education. Parent need to give enough resources to prevent these "mistakes" that they may cause death, giving sexual advice to their kids.

The consequence of this purity movement is that drives teen sexuality underground which consequently endagers teen´s lives.

Second Post

Abortion Approval May Unbalance Morale Law

Abortion is not permitted in some countries, because it may unbalance our society.

Some women that abort, especially young or teenaged women, experience a strong psychological trauma, which eventually sends them to hospitals from their level of guilt that they end up carrying.

Springfield, IL -- Six months after her abortion, Jane had a mental breakdown. When she later delivered a healthy son, unresolved grief over her abortion contributed to severe post-partum psychosis. "I remember wanting to throw him out the window of the hospital room," she later told her therapist. (http://www.afterabortion.org/news/outpatient1.html)

Our society can get unbalanced because of traumas that women obtain.

This problem can be so hard and their conscience, that they can commit suicide.

This affects families in our society, in an emotional way.

Springfield, IL (Nov. 29, 2005) — Compared to women who have not been pregnant in the prior year, deaths from suicide, accidents and homicide are 248% higher in the year following an abortion, according to a new 13-year study of the entire population of women in Finland.

The study also found that majority of the extra deaths among women who had abortions were due to suicide. The suicide rate among women who had abortions was six times higher than that of women who had given birth in the prior year and double that of women who had miscarriages. (http://www.afterabortion.org/news/suicide205.html)

There are 3 stages that a woman that wants to abort may pass through, and it may negatively affect morale.

1. She is pregnant, and doesn’t know what to do with the baby, so a friend of hers gives her an advice. This advice is to abort the baby. Then she keeps this in mind along with other advice that people she knows told her.

2. The second level is about the morale and values that she has.

She begins to think about abortion, she talks with her parents about the situation. She knows that is not right, because of her values and education she received in her home.

Society has shown to young citizens “if you have a problem run away, avoid it or get rid of it”. She doesn’t want to lose her youth, because it can happen that she does not have maturity to carry such a big responsibility.

Finally, she has decided to abort the baby.

3. Stage 3: Sooner or later, she has recognized her big mistake.

Now is the time when she feels guilty about the abortion.

Church says that an abortion is considered a crime, the same as committing murder. So this lady has committed a crime, so another crime will be easier to commit.

When she gets older and wants to form a family, she might not be able to make it, because of the blame and guilt she will feel. The memory of what she did could give her a psychological disorder.

Bibliography:

First Link: http://www.afterabortion.org/news/outpatient1.html

Second Link: http://www.afterabortion.org/news/suicide205.html

Luis Samuel Ramos Agüero