Condoms
Uploaded by peachy92.

My male friend, Joey, and I have some interesting conversations. Today, we had a very adult conversation about safe sex. We got on the topic when Joey shared an Yahoo! Answers question with me. He likes to answer political geared questions on it and then read them to me. The particular question he brought up from Yahoo! Answers was "Who will be the first politician to apologize the the 1.2 MILLION unborn babies murdered each year in the name of 'choice'?" This was the start of the conversation.

Joey is pro-life. He doesn't believe in abortion. I am pro-choice. I really don't agree with abortion, but I believe it should be legal if it is needed. We got in a conversation about why we each feel the why we do, without belittling each other for why we feel the way we do. Believe it or not, I am the more liberal of the 2 of us. I believe that abortion needs to be legal if it's needed. I think I developed this thought when I saw the scene in Dirty Dancing where Penny is recovering, but Baby's dad has to come care for her because she's getting sick from the poor conditions of the place she had the abortion. I was 9 years-old when I saw that scene and it made an impact on me. If abortion was legal at the time the movie took place, Penny may still have had some complications, but she wouldn't have to have been to a butcher. By making abortion legal, there is no need to for poor conditions of many clinics.

I also told Joey that I agreed with him on some abortion topics. I told him I agreed with abortion not being used as a form of birth control. He wants it banned totally so it won't be used as birth control. However, if my teenage daughter was raped and didn't want the baby, she should have the option if she wants it. He said she could have the baby and adopt it out. Well, it's her body. If she doesn't want a child, she shouldn't have to carry it. He's like we shouldn't punish the child for how it was conceived. I got a little technical, and in a way, cold hearted. I said that a baby, in essence, in the first trimester is technically a parasite. Yes, a cold statement on my part. But, I agreed with him that it's not birth control. I don't agree with those people that run around not using any form of birth control, getting pregnant, and then getting an abortion as a way to solve an inconvenience. They should have thought about it before having unsafe sex.

That's where the safe sex part came in. I told him the way to end abortion as birth control is education about sex. The problem I see with today, is sex education is not making an impact like it should. Sex is not shown as being as dangerous and scary as it should. Now, I'm not saying sex is bad. Sex is a wonderful thing, if done in an safe and meaningful manner. However, I don't think people are truly aware of the consequences of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. I remember talking about them growing up, and hearing about teen pregnancies and motherhood, but I wasn't really shown them. I didn't really see pictures of STDs until last year when I made a slide show in my Women's Health class on abstinence and safe sex. The professor for that class directed me to some CDC photos of STDs and let's just say they were graphic. I ended up showing Joey the slide show and grossing him out with some of the pictures.

I can thank my mother for being open with me about sex education. She was not afraid for me to learn. When she was pregnant with my brother, she had a home medical book and a small pregnancy pamphlet. Instead of shooing me away when she saw me read them, she let me read and learn. When I was 8-years-old and a Junior in Girl Scouts, she let me partake in my troop's "Girls Are Great" meeting about a girl's changing body. Later, when she became a troop leader, she did the same. She let me see Dirty Dancing when I was 9 and wasn't afraid to explain the abortion scene to me. As a result, I grew up knowing the consequences of unsafe sex. Sadly, there are many people out there that don't know the consequences of unsafe sex.

As for the abortion conversation with Joey, I told him I agreed with him on not using abortion as birth control, as well agreeing with the banning of partial-birth abortions. I also told him if I became pregnant, I personally wouldn't have an abortion. However, I also told him I wasn't ready to have kids and doing all I can to make sure I won't have a child until I'm ready. Thankfully, he listened. And the best part is he doesn't belittle my beliefs.

And to why I have a picture of a condom? Well, I took a few condom photos today and uploaded them under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Creative Commons license. I had gone to the health clinic prior to my discussion with Joey and grabbed the condoms specifically to photograph. Last year, it was hard for me to find a picture of a condom for the safe sex slide show I made. I decided it shouldn't be hard for a person to find a condom photo in the effort to educate about sex. I just thought the picture went well with this topic.

[♪ Listening to: "Lincoln Avenue" - Train]

Posted by Shawn at October 19, 2007 9:38 PM in Flickr Photos, General.