Condoms For Kids

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health has started a new pregnancy prevention program called “Take Control Philly”. This urban health program sends condoms via postal mail to kids and teens, age 11 to 19. The controversial program has been enacted to try to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned under age pregnancies. People are up in arms about the program because it provides protection to minors.

So what? Would you rather have a pregnant 13 year old or a 12 year old child with an STD that they will carry and have to deal with and will likely spread for the rest of their lives? In Philadelphia, sex happens at a young age for a lot of poor children.

A Philly survey exposed that 25 percent of 11 year-olds in the area have already had sex. More children in the city of brotherly love (ironically) have sex by the time that they turn13 than in any other city in the US. The program doesn’t mean that Philadelphia wants more kids to have sex; it means they want to stem a growing problem and prevent more STD’s from spreading and more unwanted kids from being born. The kids are having sex anyway, and they’re having sex NOW. Should nothing be done?

I think it is a great idea for a community like Philadelphia, overwhelmed with high poverty, a high teen pregnancy rate, and a high rate of STDs to be proactive when it comes to curbing this problem. Sex is happening at a very young age at a very high rate in these communities.

Of course we must think about protecting the lives of these children first. This program will ultimately allow them to live better lives, free of disease, able to avoid a pregnancy at a very young age that will weigh them down for the rest of their lives, and that will likely burden society with yet another orphan or problem unwanted child.

Is condom distribution condoning sex? Well this question is quite irrelevant, isn’t it? Everyone is having sex today and in inner city communities it is happening at a disturbingly young age, but it’s happening all the same. First we must protect their lives. As they become older, free of these burdens, then we can talk to them about their choices in life, moral and otherwise. But if their lives and other lives are ruined before we have a chance to educate them, what does it matter?

First we need more condoms for kids programs, and then we need better, more effective sex education programs for minors.