Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!hao!seismo!brl-tgr!tom From: tom@brl-tgr.ARPA (Tom Harkins ) Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: Sex education adds to # of abortions? Message-ID: <4052@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 08:58:18 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.4052 Posted: Fri Aug 17 08:58:18 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 19-Aug-84 03:49:41 EDT Organization: Ballistics Research Lab Lines: 23 Sex education and readily available birth control are often advocated in this newsgroup as being a solution to the abortion issue. A recent posting by Brian Peterson states: "What we really should be doing is giving people the opportunity to be responsible. That means sex education and available birth control" -and- "Right now the task is to make sex education and birth control plentiful (prevention is the best remedy)" I recall reading that Sweden experienced an increase in the rate of unwanted pregnancies upon implementation of the above advocated policies rather than the result that Mr. Peterson assumes. I do not explicitly recall the source of this information. Is anyone out there familiar with either these findings or similar studies? Statistics aside, I contest the assertion that a knwledge of biology and methods of pregnancy prevention/termination in any way leads to responsible behavior. If this were so, the ownership of and ability to operate a "fuzz buster" would lead to responsible driving. In each case, technology/knowledge provide only a means of escaping the most immediate consequences of irresponsible actions. tom @ brl-bmd