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I found the Rocky Mountain News’not-so-thinly-veiled abstinence-only article on teen pregnancy grossly one-sided(“Teen pregnancy dilemma,” May 21). Lacking was any mention of holding the males responsible for these teenage pregnancies.
The article reflects society’s view that females are still responsible for keeping a check on the sexual behavior of themselves and the males. Is it legal for an 18-year-old to be having sex with a 15-year-old? I applaud Monique Rodriguez and her mother; however, are the fathers of their children helping support their offspring?
We all know the abstinence- only mantra doesn’t work as even the Rocky reported several months ago.
Until men start holding men more accountable, women suffer the burden of proof of their sexual activity while the men remain unscathed. It would’ve been nice to see the Rocky step up to the plate and make mention of the responsibility of the fathers or lack thereof.

Michelle Gutru, Englewood

READER COMMENTS

If you read between the lines of the thinly veiled article,you would have seen a different picture than what the RMN was trying not to say.

The girl stated, " I didn't think it would happen to me. " No mention of birth control was mentioned.
No mention was made on who paid for the prenatal care and birth.
No mention was made if she is recievind public funds, ie public assistance,WIC etc.
No mention was made on what the mother of the girl did for a living that affords her to take care of 5 kids plus her grandson.

I am not going to believe for one minute this family is not recieving public money to care for their ever growing population explosion.

No mention was made that Monique was working at least a part-time job.Why should she if the tax payers will pay?

To hold this girl up to the latino community as a role model because she is still in school does a great disservice to the community.
As for the father of the baby not being held accountable for the pregnancy,if he is white he would be paying child support.If he is latino they do not expect them to pay for their children.
It's like if you go to the emergency room for treatment. If you are white they hunt you down like a dog to get you to pay.If you are latino you get a pass.

Two different races,two sets of rules.Yet one race want all the rights of the other except when the bill comes due.

While I'm glad to see somebody comment on the Monique Rodriguez article,what's been said so far offers no more clarity than the original article.Here's a couple of points so far not mentioned:
Point #1-Miss Rodriguez legally can't consent to intercourse,and the authorities could most certainly prosecute the alleged father for sexual assault on Miss Rodriguez as a child,as well as prosecuting Miss Rodriguez' mother for allowing the rape.The article is silent as to the actions of the District Attorney on behalf of Miss Rodriguez.
Point #2-Despite Miss Rodriguez' legal incompetence to have intercourse,she IS legally competent to have an abortion or in the alternative to parent.Under Roe v. Wade she cannot ever be forced to become a mother,but the young man who had intercourse with her can be forced to undergo an unwanted pregnancy and can be forced to become a father.Millions of men have.See your local Child Support Enforcement office for details.The article is silent about the civil rights crowd's efforts to stop this latest reincarnation of Jim Crow from abusing half the population.
Point #3-This is perhaps the most significant.Miss Rodriguez' child was born a bastard."Bastard "is a very ugly,very non-PC epithet-for very good reason.The practice of bastardy is most abusive to children thus victimized.Poverty,illness,unending emotional stress,the denial of opportunity,the inability to learn from academic instruction,the risk to life and limb from random crime(and later on from law enforcement and the corrections system) are the consequences of bastardy,and it's no wonder that "bastardy "is an ugly term.It's an ugly habit,costing society billions in money and who knows how much in misery.
Point # 4-Hard to quantify misery,but the money cost can be tracked.It all goes to the government to be disbursed to all the people providing services to Miss Rodriguez,her son,and millions just like them.Let's start with her. She and her son most certainly get a welfare check,food stamps,paid day care,paid medical expenses,paid school expenses,and paid incidental expenses.Total direct cost is probably between two and three thousand dollars monthly .There's more: in addition to what's paid directly,there is the salary of her eligibility technician,her food stamp technician,her day care payment technician,her child support technician,her case manager,her primary care physician,her son's pediatrician,their support staff,welfare department support staff,welfare building utility cost,and maintence staff salary.All these nice folks make a pretty good living from their efforts on behalf of Miss Rodriguez,and if my experience over several decades as one of those nice folks means anything,Miss Rodriguez,her mother,and her grandmother represent job security in the helping people racket.No surprise that all these nice folks love bastardy -it's their meal ticket.They're less fond of married parents,since a mother and father teaming up for their child's benefit is the best child welfare mechanism ever devised,and kinda makes the government professionals look bad.

Amen: "As for the father of the baby not being held accountable for the pregnancy, if he is white he would be paying child support."

God, but I get sick of people like Amen who have such a lack of intelligence, or perhaps it's such an abundance of bigotry, to think that all white men in such a predicament support the child. Where do such people hide their brains?

Jumminy, on #2, you often beat the drum on this, but NO man can be forced into biological fatherhood unless he is knocked out and his sperm stolen.

And NO man can be forced to be a father, all they can be is forced to pay for their pleasure.

Since many on the unwanted pregnancies fall to very young girls they are not able to force the male to "WEAR A RUBBER".

Goddess, I am sick of your posts about forced fatherhood.

How many men refuse to "wear a raincoat in the shower"?

Either all you men take responsibility for the babies you conceive, or shut the hell up!

Actually ,Truth, Amen is statistically right on the money.White men are much more likely to have been born to married parents than men of color,and are therefore much more likely to have gainful employment and the consequent ability to pay child support.We are also much more likely to marry-and marry women who respect themselves and us enough to defer motherhood until the ring is on the finger.

Yo Sharon! I was hoping I'd smoke you out -and I did.Now,if you will stop thinking with your vagina for a moment,let me point out that YOUR gender conceives children,not mine.YOUR gender has the option to bear a child,not mine.YOUR insistence that my gender has no reproductive rights and yours has no responsibility is shared by millions and it's the proximate cause of a lot of human misery,especially among men of color.I will repeat that women,especially women of color,use childbearing as an opiate stronger than heroin,and you have a lot of child abuse to answer for.

Jiminy,

You're clearly not just a racist, but a misogynist as well.

(Only women) "conceive children"

How?!?!? Parthenogenesis?

Men have the right not to have sex, and the right to wear a condom. Does your argument concede that a man who makes a woman pregnant without using a condom has already forfeited any right to input on what to do post-conception?

As for all the liberal groups who have a "vested interest in bastardy", why are they the ones who advocate most strongly for comprehensive abstinence based scientifically accurate sex education?

Do you? If not you're a hypocrite.

What! It's a bad thing to be a bastard??!! Sure. Right. OK. Next you're gonna be telling me its not good to be a pimp!

No racism,just fact.Here's a couple more: The RMN recently reported a 70% illegitimacy rate among African-Americans.The rate has been slightly less among Hispanics,and significantly less among other ethnic groups.The social disruption amongst all the diverse groups is directly proportionate to the illegitimacy rate,as is the $$ you have to pony up for government services to same.
Misogynist? Don't tell Mrs.Jimminy that.She laughs uncontrollably.
It's the law,not any argument of mine,that allows the extortion of men who donate sperm.It's also the law that a woman can end (or complete) a pregnancy even when a condom is used but fails.You like established law? Maybe Rosa Parks should have just shut up and given her seat on the bus to that white person.That was the law too.
Abstinence? The abstinence advocates are fundamentalist conservatives,not liberals.No liberal would ever advocate behavior that results in less need for social spending.No conservative would ever take human nature into account in deciding what people should do.The Pill went on the market in 1960,and nailed shut the coffin lid on abstinence.
I read that the distinguishing characteristic of ancient Spartan men was that they were all gay.Has Queen Gorgo a method for inducing parthenogenesis?

Dig that Jimminy! Talk about ladies' man--what woman could resist. (His mother must be SO proud! Can't you just see her pointing out his posts to her friends: "That's my boy Jimminy, the he-man woman hater! It was my option to bear him, you know, and I used his birth as an opiate!")

Jimminy can't possibly have a wife or a girlfriend, could he, do you suppose?

Too bad American men can`t control themselves . Just can`t seem to find the old condom store.

Sure abstinance works except in rape, date-rape, incest etc.

Jmminy, yes in this one area of life, finally, women have the say and you men pay.

Jimminy, this is my last post to you, because you are insane if you think men don`t f--k and run for their own personal pleasure. And you call that "donating sperm"?

Thank you H.Brando.

I admit he got under my skin and I over reacted. Your post gave me a chuckle and put him back into perspective.

Jiminy,

Since most of your post was gibberish and off topic of what I asked, I'll put it again very simply.

Yes or No question.

Do you support better state-funded access to birth control to prevent bastardy?

p.s. Even though I'm a Wolverine, I've got to give props to the Spartans, and so should you, homophobe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

Smoked out a few more cockroaches this time.Must be doing something right.Okay,reverse order: All the Spartans have been dead for millenia.Doesn't matter to anyone,least of all them, what's said or by whom,although since the Spartan women lived in Sparta and not on the island of Lesbos,they may well have had loneliness issues.
On to a modern day question: I don't care whether the government funds birth control or not. I do doubt whether Monique Rodriguez (remember her?)would have applied for birth control assistance even were it available gratis,which I believe it is through Planned Parenthood.Even if not,condoms are cheap and(nearly always) reliable.Girls can buy them too.
Sharon,nobody can f*ck and run unless there's a willing pair of open legs.In your postings on this and other threads there's a consistent theme of delight in seeing my gender punished for events over which by law we have NO control.I rather suspect that the open pair of legs was at one time yours and that you are the one who was f*cked and run from.It may be that the one who ran found running more pleasurable than what went before.
Hans,I'm afraid you have me.The most original thing I've heard from you was when you called me a "schmuck" on another thread.This time around you insulted my mother,but put no ideas of your own into your post.You then questioned whether there was a Mrs Jimminy, even though I've made reference to her more than once,most recently eight hours ago.I haven't heard one thing from you about the issues raised by Michelle Gutru in her letter that started this thread.Could your inability to focus as well your need to rely on the ideas of others be an indicator that you too are the victim of the social malady we've been discussing?

We now see a living, breathing example of the word "incoherance" (sp). at 3:55, who cares.

I`m still howlling with laughter over "sperm doner" men having to pay for their mistakes.

Well, Jimminy, what can I say, live is grossly unfair to men who get led around by the penis. Now if only they could use their "other head" sometimes, they wouldn`t be such fools.

Later, sport.

Sharon-we've got to stop meeting like this!

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