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Comment by Sohcahtoa82

13 days ago

> After school specials since the 80s have made pregnancy a horror to avoid instead of a joy to grasp.

I don't draw the same conclusion. I think they've made teen pregnancy a horror to avoid, which is totally fair.

The more complete version of this line of reasoning is (which I've seen more than once, but no links to hand, sorry) is:

After solidly internalizing the messaging of "teen pregnancy is the worst thing ever" & "sex leads to teen pregnancy", there's no "switch" to make those thought patterns disappear without a trace at the point at which it's "ok" (by whatever metric is relevant to the individual) to participate in sex, child-rearing, etc. So individuals find themselves dealing with long-term guilt at having sex and/or aversion to having children, neither of which is "rational" according to their values but which nonetheless is real and affects their behavior.