Does the sale of condoms to minors promote safe sex, promiscuity, or both? With the spread of unplanned pregnancies & venereal disease amongst America's under 18 crowd has allowing minors to purchase condoms been a wise idea? As a kid in Oregon I remember that "rubbers", as we called them back then were kept under the pharmacist's counter. If a person looked of questionable age(under 18) the pharmacist in question would call for proof of I.D., no kidding!
What I'm getting at is...does the sale of condoms to minors CONDONE & or PROMOTE children to indulge in adult activities? I have heard BOTH sides of the argument, one being to protect minors with safe sex, the other as promoting promiscuity.
For an example, condoms were NOT impossible for minors to purchase even during the age they were kept under the counter. During my sophomore year in 1967 my new girl friend let it be known that her mom would be gone Saturday & that the house was "ours". As she was leaving she gave me a kiss on my forehead & a wink then said don't forget your rubbers!
To make a short/humiliating story much shorter I was told by the pharmacist that I needed to be 21, that's right, "TWENTY ONE years of age to purchase prophylactics". When I told my girl friend the next day what had happened(good God I was soooo humiliated!) she just shook her head & started laughing & I mean hard! We both made our way on foot to the SAME pharmacy, she steered me to the magazine rack, she went back to the pharmacy counter & in a minute or so came back up the isle with a white sack in her hand with a dozen Sheik rubbers in it & said..."you gotta act like you know what your doing". I personally think there was a "LITTLE" gender bias involved in those days!!!
What I'm saying is...condoms were harder to come across for minors back then, but we did come up with them as I illustrated above. Unwanted pregnancies & VD were all but unknown back then amongst minors but we were definitely sexually active. How come today with condoms so available to minors that both unwanted pregnancies & VD are so rampant??? Does the ease of purchase of condoms by minors today suggest to them that they can ride bare back as well, as anything goes?
I would find it hard to believe that minors are LESS well informed about condoms & sex TODAY than we were back in the sixties. I mean I was flopping around the pharmacy counter the first time like a fish out of the water. I did not know how many condoms came in a box nor even the brand names & was too "proud" to tell my girl friend that I did not know what to do because I was still a virgin which I'm sure she all to well had already realized & she was having fun with her "green" charge!
Are the "UNWANTED" pregnancies really wanted in the hopes of public assistance?
Are minors today just too uninformed to know how to properly use condoms?
Do condoms have a higher failure rate than the condom manufactuers would likely admit to?
Is venereal disease being spread by other means than just standard intercourse?
I personally don't believe that sexual "NEEDS" can be regulated by an age of consent law any more than breathing air can be regulated by law. Both are "physiologically" driven needs. As minors hormones come on line the need for release from sexual tension in both genders becomes a necessity. Considering both the physiological & psychological needs of human sexuality it is no small wonder that back in the days when B.C. turned into A.D. that people married so young. Amongst the ancient Hebrews when a girl came into her menstrual cycle she became woman. Some have speculated that these ancient marriages were conducted for couples as young as thirteen years of age!!!
One things for certain though, VD can maim & kill, & unwanted pregnancies cost society billions per year in social programs. Would our society benefit from dropping the age of consent say down to fifteen? Maybe make divorce much more difficult to obtain for a couple? Enact harsh penalties for infidelity? I'm just FISHING for answers to this problem of VD & unplanned parenthood & would appreciate your answers/suggestions!
PS...I do not believe that there were REAL state or federal laws that restricted the sale of condoms to people over eighteen or twenty one years of age. I believe back then they were considered "blue laws", meaning they were unofficial laws supported by local folks with in the community by their PERSONAL standards. From what little I have researched about the old blue laws, they seemed to be promoted by religious zealots mostly interested in "enforcing" their view points over the local inhabitants with in their community. I'm not sure on this one so could use some input as I well could be mistaken here about this.