Students shouldn’t have to explore campus too much to track down contraceptives.
There are only a handful of places to get free or cheap birth control on a campus of over 30,000 students. (See page 1 for details.)
Even worse, reliable information is hard to come by. When asked by a Daily reporter what OU students should do to prevent STDs and how much birth control costs at Goddard Health Center, a spokeswoman merely stated that “abstinence is the only complete effective protection,” though birth control options provide “some protection.”
This lack of information is especially concerning for students unfortunate enough to come from federally-funded high schools — which cannot teach anything but abstinence-only sex education — or conservative homes where preventing pregnancy and STDs was never discussed.
This reluctance to talk about birth control is baffling to us because contraceptives aren’t antithetical to conservatism. They’re antithetical to pregnancies and STDs.
Even people who disagree about who should be having sex ought to be able to agree that those who are having sex should do so as safely as possible.
Those who think sex should be saved for marriage aren’t doing anyone any favors when they turn a blind eye to the fact that many people do not adhere to this rule.
Studies show that abstinence-only education does not prevent students from having sex. It does prevent them from knowing how to do so safely.
OU should do a better job of educating its students about the risks and responsibilities associated with sex.
The university has gone out of its way to warn freshmen about the dangers of alcohol consumption, even though it is illegal for most of them to drink. Why can’t it provide similar information about sex?
OU sponsors SafeRide, which helps people who could be arrested for public intoxication get home safely. Why not sponsor SafeSex, a program that would put information about preventing STDs on Goddard’s Web site and condoms in the dorms?
The easy objection is that it’s not the university’s place to encourage its students to have sex, but that’s a disingenous objection. Does anyone really think making contraceptives more available is going to make sex among college students more common?
It’s difficult for us to imagine that condoms in XCetera are going to inspire anyone who would otherwise remain abstinent to hop in bed with the next available co-ed.
But it is easy for us to imagine that condoms in XCetera might inspire someone who was going to have sex anyway to use protection and reduce the chances of an unplanned pregnancy or an STD.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
kdbp1213 3 years, 7 months ago
How about relying less on Big Brother for personal education such as sex? Parents & families' physicians need to be educating kids.
The Hippies of the '60s started the promiscuous sex and now society is paying for it via disease, unwanted/unplanned pregancies (leading us to abortions), etc.
How about having protected sex with somebody you actually love and care for? Maybe even marry? Does anybody ever practice family planning anymore? There are a lot of people in our world that DO NOT need to re-produce.....
mustafa 3 years, 7 months ago
How would anyone on the Daily staff know what is acceptable to a conservative? Is someone there actually willing to speak to a conservative? The fact is that the less-than-abstinence conservative crowd believe that unless a person trusts and knows their partner well enough to know they are clean and disease free, they shouldn’t be having sexual relations at all. This policy is known, in conservative circles, as “common sense.” It is the liberal ideology that encourages people to jump into bed without even knowing, so much as, each other’s names.
How interesting that the this liberal opinion speaks generally of STD’s, but no longer mentions the bogus threat of heterosexual AIDS, without which the modern “safe-sex” movement would never have been even contemplated.
spearce22 3 years, 7 months ago
Really? Safe sex in college is the only way to promote sex. Liberals and Conservatives are sexualizing each other all over campus. Do you ask your sexual partner his or her's political beliefs during foreplay? No!As college students, some like to run around and mate with whomever they can or whomever they end up with at the end of a drunkin night of partying. I'd rather have rubbers than abortions. So get over your political views and just accept the facts ans the reality of the cultures of college.