The Pregnancy Pact

Looks like I had written this up last June and never posted it, so... it is getting posted now. :D

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More stuff to talk about today. I won't be able to write about all of it right at the moment, but what I am going to do is write a abit, head out for a bit and finish it up later. I know, you would probably never notice if I just saved it and moved on, but hey, we (me) at Slyde Space are all about the truth and honesty in journalism, so there you go - a bit of truth from me.

So last week, I heard about this pregnancy pact story. Originally it was on The New Hot 89.9 that I heard about it, and then suddenly it was all over the news, I saw Jane Fonda talking about it on T.V., there were internet postings about it everywhere. It was insane! It was something I had wanted to blog about, and now, it's just taken off into the stratosphere.

The story, as I understand it (and feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this), is that there were a number of students aged 16 and under who made a pact to all get pregnant together. So they went out and had sex with all manner of guys and made sure they got pregnant. Now the part of this that really made me shke my head was that the reason for this wasn't so the kids could all grow up together, or so they could all experience it at the same time, and certainly not because they were in love with the fathers and had all decided this was what they wanted to do. No. The reason I heard was that they wanted to have someone who would love them unconditionally.

OK, stop. Breathe. Think it over. Yep. Undconditional love from a baby.

A baby doesn't love it's mother at first. It relies on it's mother. It depends on it's mother for food and survival. It feels safe, perhaps, and trusts, but love is not something that I believe a baby would even understand. Besides that, unconditional love is something that is learned and something that is given to a child from an adult. They can then take that love and they can learn to love their parent unconditionally, or they can learn to despise their parent - it all depends on the upbringing of the child, no doubt.

For the adult, the unconditional love comes from the knowledge of this child being a part of themself and being an extension of them. They feel the dependence of the child upon them, and know that, raising this child the right way, they can be an incredible person, and someone to whom the world can be thankful was alive.

Alright, I know, there are those who do not have these feelings. Those who are like rutting animals, only having kids because it is the by-product of their lust and lack of self-control. Or those who have simply lost the ability to feel anything but anger or hatred. But, for the majority, I would hope, this unconditional love for their children is something that they have and that they impart to the child.

So, eventually, the child will understand that no matter what they do, no matter how bad they are and no matter how they act, their parents will always love them. Unconditionally. Eventually, the child learns this, not right away, and it certainly isn't an instinctual feeling.

That these girls of the pregnancy pact seem to think they will receive unconditional love from babies is a testament to the lack of education they were receiving, and the lack of sexual education specifically is more that disturbing. I have heard stories about the school board not allowing condoms to be given to students because it was illegal, or something to that effect. What kind of irresponsible community do these kids live in that doesn't provide proper education or prevention to their young? I understand that religious beliefs sometimes influence the belief in whether or not to use contraceptives, but if you are going to preach the words "Go forth and multiply", you also need to teach the fundamentals of that type of multiplication, such as the rule that one multiplying with one makes three!

Another part of this whole situation that I find disturbing is the fact that there are now 17 children about to be born into this community who are not going to have father figures to assist in raising them. I know, there are millions of kids raised everyday by single mothers, and I applaud each and every one of those mothers for the work and the effort they put in - it is no easy job. But there is something to be said for a child that is raised by both parents, or who at least has both parents in their life. The child learns different points of view, different ways of looking at the world, how to deal with ambiguity (mom said I can go to the movies, dad said I can't - what do I do other than just go cuz that's what I wanted?).

Cheers!

Slyde