Many places, contraception is forbidden or seen as weakness and morally reprehensible, and thus, not easy to obtain...especially for the younger girls who are most at risk.

It wasn't that long ago that this was true right here in the good ol' USA. Contraception was NOT available to me, as a teenager; thus I have a son who will be 36 this April, just 17 years younger than me. I wouldn't have changed having him for a minute, but there was NO alternative available then. I'd never even heard of abortion until several years later.

I used to volunteer at a Planned Parenthood. This was about 28 years ago. I remember getting so frustrated with the young women who would come to us. They would say they'd been having regular sex for a year or so and thought maybe they should come get on the "pill." The young men never came in with them, nor would they wear condoms. I would scold the girls for waiting so long to get protection and remind them, their ability to even know about the pill was thanks to the women who went before them and fought for those rights. Now there are whole generations who don't have a clue what it is like to have those choices taken away. Maybe they don't care, I don't know.

kat