Sex Education and Funding for Day Care

In response to Abraham Soto’s brief essay (“Diaper Bags, Book Bags Can Mix,” May 30) in support of high school day-care centers for girls who “somewhere along the line . . . fall into the trap of pregnancy”:

Perhaps sex education in our public schools today is not getting a five-star rating. But try going back 10 or 15 years to compare what was offered then in relation to today. There practically was none. If we’re going to fault sex education in our schools for the high percentage of teen-age pregnancies, then we should also find fault with the teen-agers themselves.

It hasn’t even been four years since I graduated from high school and I can clearly remember the sex education classes that I took. They were not poor presentations of the pitfalls often confronting sexually active young people. In fact, they were often graphic depictions of true cases in which teen-agers simply refused to pay attention to advice. That, I believe, is a huge part of the problem.

I too have several friends who are pregnant or have had kids in recent years. I tried to inform them of the grave responsibilities they faced but not one of them listened. Now we are supposed to say that it’s all right and divert funds from an already reeling state budget, which can’t even afford to educate its youth throughout the entire education system, and install day-care centers for people who decided they knew best?

We should not have to plead with youths to make “good decisions.” Teen-agers are not ignorant. Many know there is a recourse in case anything “goes wrong.”

Having been raised Catholic myself, I understand the moral implications involved in terminating a pregnancy.

But can anyone answer this question: If abortion is held to be morally wrong, then isn’t premarital sex just as bad if not worse?

We need to answer such questions before we appear to condone teen-age sexual behavior by providing day-care centers in public schools.

MARK DAHL

West Adams