Paid not to get pregnant?

[IDrinkaRum]

College Bound Sisters program pays girls who join the group to not get pregnant

This program is completed once the girl graduates high school and enters college. The program is also ended if the girl participating in it becomes pregnant.

[Cats]

Woah woah woah....girls need the incentive to get PAID to understand the consequences of getting pregent at a young age? I can't speak for everyone else, but in my sucky school system, there was plenty of knowledge available about safe sex. Heck, even during that part of the lesson plans, some of them were partially student lead since we were well versed!

No one should NEED to offer someone money to not get pregant as a teen...the education itself should be enough and if it happens anyway, well, that's a life choice she has made. I know sex is a powerful thing, but everything in life has risks and consequences. You made the bed, now you lay in it (no pun intended).

People shouldn't be rewarded for praticing a level of common sense; then they become less inclined to pratice it on a regular occasion without some benefit to them.


This also makes me wonder...would the teen abortion rate rise? If girl gets pregant but is in the program and doesn't want to lose out on the benefit, she could potentially go for an abortion before they group finds out, since docs have to keep pregancy info confidential anyway (is that true in every state though?). If that's the case, then IMO, the lesson has still failed.


Liek I said, I can't speak for everyone since I did have many decent lessons on sex ed, but seriously, I cannot comprehend what is so damn hard about saying, "K, if you have intercourse, there is a chance a woman can become pregnant from it. If you don't want to take that risk, there's pills you can get from your doctor (for women). Or for an added bonus of STD protection, there's these things called condoms available at many local stores and sometimes free from health clinics. They come with instructions, and even if they didn't, with the internet and all your mad skillz with your cellphones features, they probably wouldn't be too hard to find." I know it's a little more complex than that, but that's the basic gist of it!

[McDreidel09]

Oh man. Where do I sign up? They would be helping me out big time with tuition.

I do think it's a wonderful idea. Girls who do get pregnant at a young age get more financial aid than those who don't. I have worked hard to get where I am and didn't do anything that could mess up my chance of going to school,shouldn't I get something for that? Or any other girl who is in the same boat as me?

As for the "it's not hard to talk to your children about the consequences of sex", teens will do it anyway. Trust me, first my mom tried telling me about abstinence and then she decided to tell me about protection and any consequences that could come out of sex (i.e. my mere existence when my mom was 17), but I had sex anyway, starting at 14.

So why not give a little incentive to get girls to demand their partners to use protection?

[blas87]

Makes sense to me.

Look what a lot of young single mothers get for getting pregnant.....free college, WIC, foodstamps, welfare, all kinds of assistance.....

If a little monetary incentive in the other direction stopped this epidemic, I wouldn't shame it.

[Lady_Foxfire]

As I understand it, the program is also a support group that helps teens make better choices about sex, so one could view the money as a way to draw participants into the group, and that the support group is supposed to be more effective than the cash at keeping girls not-pregnant.

[HYHYBT]

They come with instructions

Not really on topic, but do those instructions still include that you should not use them for anything other than penis-in-vagina sex? I'm curious, but not curious enough to buy a pack to find out.

[Kalli]

Personal responsibility takes yet another kick in the face while it's on the ground. Sheesh.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Maybe instead, they could consider not rewarding girls for getting pregnant instead? I don't mean taking away all financial aid, but I've seen girls pushing buggies around the supermarket and buying huge £50 packs of cigarettes at the kiosk. Plus, single mothers get tons of benefits, have their rent and council tax paid, and get milk tokens etc into the bargain. Whereas a lot are deserving of the help they get, a worryingly large amount see it as an excuse to dump their kids with their parents and go out on the piss.

[DesignFox]

Based upon what the program is saving tax-payers in medical and welfare costs, I'm all for it.

Especially since the program is more than just "here's money, don't get knocked up!" It's a support and educational system...it teaches the girls about safe-sex, thus possibly sparing them the threat of STD's, AND since the program has gotten flack because of abstinence only morons, I'd say the area's kids NEED this education! If this spits in the face of people who only want to teach their kids, "If you have sex you're an evil whore and going to hell!" I'm all for it. These girls now have a way to get the education regarding sex that they need and they have an incentive to go to school and better themselves. AND it all saves the tax-payers money.

Win all around.

[Fryk]

Wouldn't not having to pay for all the expenses a kid entails be payment enough?

[joe hx]

Wouldn't not having to pay for all the expenses a kid entails be payment enough?

ah, but that would be using common sense!!

[tropicsgoddess]

Oh man. Where do I sign up?

Damn, I guess that ship sailed for me...I'm a 20 something. Oh well.

I think it's a good idea and it does make sense to use that money towards preventing teen pregnancies and to show them the incentives of keeping the stork at bay (so to speak).

[McDreidel09]

Wouldn't not having to pay for all the expenses a kid entails be payment enough?

Ummm. Not really. It still doesn't pay for my college.

Honestly, why is it such a big deal to reward young girls who make wise choices, but when a girl gets pregnant young, it's not such a big deal? I understand, they have the baby, but the rewards only provide incentives for a young girl to get pregnant, because hey! No big deal! It will be taken care of for me!

Let's make this clear: I am not against welfare or anything like that. That has helped my mother many times. However, I hate how girls who don't get pregnant, but are on their own get screwed over because they made the choice not to have children young.