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Not in this eraLong long time ago, God told Eve that she would suffer the consequences of her insubordination. Yes, she had to go through ridiculously painful child bearing, and God made good on His word, as times have changed and improved – except labour! What was not recorded in the Bible however, was abstinence. On the contrary, God told stubborn Eve and her boyfriend to go have a blast filling the earth! I suspect God’s words were taken into serious consideration because it has come to my realisation that abstinence is not an option – not in this day and age at least!Let’s be honest, teaching abstinence alone has little to almost no effect. When it comes to teenagers, their curiosity is only natural – and forbidden fruit is simply too tempting. According to onlineathens.com, prescribed abstinence education in schools does not lead to abstinent behaviour. It may instead contribute to the high teen pregnancy rates.Researchers at the University of Georgia also looked at the influence of other factors on teen pregnancy, such as socio economic status, education level, and ethnicity. Those factors can influence teen pregnancy rates, but the researchers still found that the more abstinence is emphasized in an official sex education program, the higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates are.Common sense says to educate children and adults about safe sex but some people feel that it is more effective to impose their ‘morality’ on others. Do not get me wrong; I’d love for people, especially kids, to stay away from sex till they are ready. But whom are we kidding? That’s not going to happen so we might as well do the smart thing, which is teach safe sex.When people suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment in the 1980’s, there was panic! And correctly so, I mean imagine waking up one day to a world where you meet someone totally cute, go out for a date, have one too many tequila shots and do the naughty – months later, you are in a hospital bed looking for last minute priests! Of course, people panicked! But for how long? Shockingly, these days, girls are more afraid of getting pregnant than they are of contracting HIV. Studies in 2010 showed that the best way to prevent teen pregnancy is to provide teens with honest, accurate information – the most effective coming from a parent.Abstinence should still be encouraged, but we should stop relying solely on it and work towards utter honesty, no matter how uncomfortable some things are. That is what we need, safety. People say condoms encourage immorality but trust me, when a girl comes home with something brewing in her belly, the idea of a condom won’t sound so bad! We need protection!