President Obama has unveiled his plan for the 2014 Fiscal Year. I do not plan to argue or discuss any of the bigger cuts or expenses in the plan, I only want to focus on a certain part. This plan includes eliminating funding for abstinence education(Page 173). This hasn’t made any headlines due to more high areas of the proposal, which is understandable.

I bring up this cut because it’s something that I am personally glad to have cut. I’ve had awful experiences with sex education in the past.

I remember in eighth grade when some advisers came to teach us all about abstinence. We all remember the awful pictures of inflamed genitals and sore-ridden lips.

I also remember the flak I got from the advisers and fellow classmates when I asked a simple question:

“What can I do to not get any of these diseases?”

All the students laughed and girls called me pervert while the other guys started making gross jokes.

The advisor, now blushing slightly from being asked such a direct question, replied  “Don’t have sex until you’re married.”

Now at this age I was someone who questioned authority on a daily basis and hated it when adults didn’t answer my questions and that reply got me going.

Stunned by her complete avoidance to the question, I pressed her more.

“Why can’t I have sex before marriage?”

“Because it isn’t safe.”

“Why not?”

“Because sex before marriage isn’t right and is dangerous.”

That last part got me furious.

As most kids in middle school I thought I knew everything; however, on this particular subject I knew what this lady was telling me was bologna.

“How is sex dangerous?”

“When you have sex,  you run the risk of catching STDs or causing pregnancy.”

That was the last straw for my pre-pubescent self and I remember screaming at this point.

“We’ve been learning about STDs and pregnancy all year. Don’t lie to me and just stop the frickin’ brainwashing!”

Now that last statement may seem odd and out of place, but I had been listening to these “safe sex” advisers for a couple days now and I really felt like sticking it to them after almost a week of being preached at.

Now the advisor was getting mad too.

“That’s not true, even with a condom you run the risk of catching STDs!”

“I run the risk of drowning everytime I go swimming alone, and the chance of that happening is just as low as a condom not working.”

My missing health teacher had now come back from the office to get some papers and found both the advisor and I red-faced and screaming at each other.

After a detention and writing a mandatory apology letter, I’m now a senior in high school and I still hear the same bologna from other “safe sex” advisers.

When teenagers learn about sex, the first thing that’s always said is “Don’t have sex before marriage.”

I agree that it is generally a good idea to tell kids not to have sex before they are ready, or marriage. I am not arguing against that, but to teach teens only about abstinence and nothing else is very harmful and it just doesn’t work.

So why are we still telling teens to not have sex when it’s clear it isn’t working?

Beats me.

We have learned time and time again that no force on earth can stop a teenager from doing something, nothing except the teenager themselves.

Do you remember when there were a lot of ads about smoking and alcohol. Remember all those kids that didn’t do drugs from now on because they saw those ads?

I don’t.

If you chose not to smoke, drink, or use other drugs, it’s because of a promise you made to yourself.

Arbitrary promises are promises you make with yourself and hold it only to yourself. Ask any person that stays up late to work on studying in order to get good grades, or why someone abstains from drug use. It’s because they made a promise to themselves to act this way because THEY wanted to, no one else, only them. And if you break this promise, it only matters to you and it shouldn’t bother anyone else that you broke it.

Having sex until marriage is an arbitrary promise that only you should make barring any influence from others.

Telling a teenager to not have sex and nothing else won’t help them.

You know what will?

Tell them the consequences of their actions for either decision and let them make the choice.

You’ve done all you can do, telling them to flat out not do it won’t help anyone.

Teach teens about condoms and contraceptives.

I hope to someday meet a person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Whether or not I’ve had sex before meeting this person is up to me and me alone.

To me, this is one important part of Obama’s proposed budget plan and I want it to be part of whatever budget plan is approved for the 2014 fiscal year.