Gambling Your Entire Life

When you get down to it, sex is not really about power or love or any of those other things, though they are often involved. No matter how you look at it, sex is inherently about procreation, not recreation. Thus, having sex for any other reason dictates that something is done to circumvent this purpose. As teenagers, it is generally socially unaccpetable to have children, and, more importantly, economically unfeasible. Logically then, a sexually active teenager must take precautions to prevent the clichéd "unwanted pregnancy."

Unfortunately, there exists no perfect birth control; all methods have drawbacks. Take, for example, condoms. Though they probably have the best protection from STD's compared to other contraceptives, condoms, like it or not, may break. Statistics on how often condoms fail vary widely, because some studies take into account what can only be labelled "user error," while others simply test in a laboratory-type environment. Regardless, assume for a moment that condoms have a failure rate of just one percent, which equates to odds of one in a hundred. Those odds may seem favorable; after all, you'd have to have sex 100 times before you could worry! Unfortunately, that one time may the first time, not the fiftieth or the hundredth. It's not worth gambling your entire life on such odds; if Northwestern can go to the Rose Bowl, you can be involved in a pregnancy. Other methods of birth control, such as the Pill (arguably the most reliable method) generally harbor a number of possible side effects. These may include nausea, bleeding and disorientation. Additionally, they may cost a fair amount of money, though it's a small price to pay compared to raising a child.

Should the birth control you choose fail, about the only alternative left is abortion. Besides costing hundreds of dollars (depending on your health insurance and the qualifications of whoever carries out the process, of course), abortion generally carries with it a tremendous amount of emotional baggage. Some women spend their entire lives recovering from the emotional trauma of a deliberately terminated pregnancy. Others don't seem to have a problem with it, but there's no way to tell ahead of time how you may react.

A pregnancy will affect your life, whether or not abortion is chosen. Should the child be kept, be aware that 85 percent of teenage fathers dissociated themselves from the mother and child, a decision that has an impact on his conscience and reputation as well as her life. Even if not abandoned, the social stigma stemming from relatives, friends, authorities and others of being a teenage parent is unavoidable, as are the often difficult economic consequences. It's just not possible as a teenager to go to school, to work for a child and to care for the child.

It's easy to forget that you're gambling with your entire life and your future when opting to have sex as a teenager, but there's more than just religion and conscience to consider when contemplating sex. In light of the social consequences and health risks, it just doesn't make sense to engage in sexual activity as a teen in our culture. Besides, you needn't actually "go all the way" if you're dead-set on having a good time, but you do need to be responsible.

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