So the CofE wants to make abortion an election issue?

[Rave]

O.K. fine. 200,000 abortions are carried out every year in this country, and (debatably) that's too many. If reducing the abortion rate is desirable, then surely the church must be strongly in favour of much more sex education in schools, delivered to children at an earlier age than it is currently?

[Swafe]

I think we got our first dose of Sex ed at about the age of 10, it didnt really work, most kids giggled and found it more of a funny part of the timetable, than a serious one.

Im not sure whether it was too young or too old....I mean on one hand, kids giggling, not paying any attention = waste of time.....yet you do get the odd girl that gets up the duff at 12, so I guess its still worthwhile.

I wasnt really taught much, even at secondary school, most of the teachers were too embaressed (Mainly at secondary school) to talk about it, especially my female form tutor infront of a bunch of 20 horny teenagers that will just snigger constantly at her for the rest of her teaching days.

It needs to be more serious, I'm for that, but as for a younger age? As I said I think 10/11 is about the limit, any less and your just wreaking a kids innocence far too much and anything under 10, I dont think they'd honestly understand unless the words 'Winky' and 'Billy Pee Hole' are used extensively.

[Kumagoro]

ok maybe teach kids under 10 a bit about sexual repro but not about safe sex type stuff and leave that till senior school.... I think that there should be a special sex ed teacher who comes around rather than have the normal teachers do it.

[GreenPiggy]

Will just chuck in my two pence worth on this cos I will have to teach it soon enough.
I think there is definitely a case for having a specialist teacher for sex education because in most schools it is 'bolted on' to form tutor duties and is rarely treated very seriously by the teachers who take it mainly because they resent teaching something outside their subject area - nor should they have to
But the end result seems to be that sex education is done really quite badly in schools with little structure and very few resources to back it up.

[father smurf]

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[thestjohn]

thing is, what proportion of the abortion rate is comprised of unwanted teenage pregnancies? I'm all for better sex education in schools; the area I live in is full of pre-16 mothers, and considering their sex-ed lessons are probably on a par with the lessons I received at the same school, I'd say there should be some improvement.

But would it actually reduce the abortion rate? What if the majority of abortions are performed on women in their 20's or 30's? Would better sex ed have helped their decision, or should it be said that by that age most women would have assimilated all of the information needed to make informed reproductive choices?

[DavidM]

Less peer pressure for people to "go forth and multiply"

[Brodieman]

Whether I agree or disagree with abortion is not the issue, it's more the fact that the C of E are trying to get this to be an election issue. There are many reason abortions happen and we have to remember this. It's not just used by some as a form of contraception.

I agree with GreenPiggy that there should be more education in school and by specialists (like you get this maths and sciences), but telling most teenagers not to do something is like waving a red rag at a bull. To be honest I can't remember much of the sex education from school thb (apart from the wear a condom bit). But surely sex education shouldn't be just down to schools, shouldn't parents take some responsibility? Granted we out source education to people that in the most part know what they are talking about, and have the relevant skills in teaching in different methods for different learning styles. But wouldn't it help if parent talked about this stuff with their kids (granted mine didn't), like parents do with maths or science or even English.

Back to the point though, abortion as an election issue? NO
I personally believe (no matter how trusting I might be) that religion should not be connected to politics. Yes I think politicians should take the opinions of general public in to account but no one religion should has control.

And to be quiet honest, I think there are plenty of other more pressing matters at hand:
The NHS
Schools
Public Pensions
Transport
Simplification of the Tax system
Affordable housing not just for key workers but for everyone (for example most first time buyers can afford to buy a house! At least not when they are £120000 +)
Creation of new jobs
Crime (including Benefit fraud and the prisons)

I only wish the politicians would just get some of those right! Before trying to fix things religion wants imposed on us.

[Firebar]

Sex Education wont help. As above, there has to be MUCH less peer pressure from the media etc about sex - which is just never going to happen.

Tbh this country is doomed and I aim to move out of it soon anyway.

[Auran]

Personally I'd be in favour of the following drastic measure once it becomes proved as safe, however it does have one flaw which leads me to wonder what the heck we can do about reducing unwanted pregnancies and consequently abortions.

- Scientists have developed a reversible for of "The Snip" using a device similar to a cable tie, but considerably smaller. Thus you could attach a pair of these to a male at puberty and then they only take them off once they reach a point whereby they want children.

The problem is then that your average herbert is just going to run around having uprotected sex and spreading STD's. Unless you can edcate them otherwise..... and pigs might fly

[DavidM]

Isaac Assimov had some very interesting points on this controversial issue in his none-fiction book "Left hand of the electron". I would recommend it.

[JK Ferret]

One of my teachrs told me that 'most teachers dontlike teaching sex ed as they could be sued/sacked if they give chidren the wrong impression, even on accident. - i.e.,encouraging them to go and start having sex with each other etc etc.'

Right, thats sex ed out of the way, now for abortion. I dont think it should become an election issue as there are too many other, more important issues, mainly crime, education and the NHS. But, I have come to the conclusion that half of the things the government (hell anyone, especially the media) yatter on about is actually just to gain support for a particular cause - in this case, elections. Look at the 'sexed up' dossier that was the subject of much heated discussion last year. Look at Blunkett's extremely (un)interesting private life. Look at anything, and ther's bound to be an extremely debated topic within it somewhere along the line.

[Galant]

I don't see what the problem is with anyone bringing up anything 'as an election issue'. Surely the whole point of democracy is that the people get to choose, and how they choose or what criteria they use in making that choice is up to them. Hopefully you'll have a nation or responsible people making good choices, but that's just part of the democratic system.

Concerning abortion, since the argument is that abortion is a form of murder, I think it is certainly a valid issue for election.