Now it's Herman, and Sherman, and me..

When I was in elementary school I remember over-hearing a song on the playground that went something like this....

Herman, what have you done to me?
Herman, I think it's pregnancy.
Herman, you stuck your d**k in me.
Now it's Herman, and Sherman and Meeee.

I can hear the parents now 'OMG what kind of elementary school did you go to!?!' A good one actually, but it was grades 1-6 and all ages had recess together, so us younger kiddies were bound to overhear some 'big kid' talk now and then.

I have somewhat of a photographic memory and well unfortunately the song has stuck in my head all these years. There was a pretty naughty one about Batman too but I'll spare you those lyrics.

Now before you think I've lost what sense I have, let me tell you there is a reason for torturing you with that memory.

Yesterday on twitter an online friend tweeted the following:

f**k... one of my best female friends may be preggo... shes gone effin insane.

When someone else asked him if he was involved the reply he gave was 'I dont think i was involved. Could be wrong, but the timing is off...'.

I gave him a halfhearted 'shame on you' and 'you should use protection' to which he answered 'I was protected, but it's still possible something happened.'

Before I hop on my soap box let me share some numbers. Courtesy of www.thenationalcampaign.org

About one in two pregnancies in America are unplanned.(i) 1

• That is, over three million of the 6.4 million pregnancies in the United States annually are unplanned.1 Moreover, about two-thirds of unplanned pregnancies—two million—are unwanted.(ii) 2 In other words, about one in three pregnancies are unwanted.




• The rate of unplanned pregnancy remained constant between 1994 and 2001 at 51 unplanned pregnancies per 1,000 women age 15-44.1 During the same time period, the rate of unwanted pregnancy increased slightly (4%)—from 31.9 to 33.2 unwanted pregnancies per 1,000 women age 15-44.3




• Over three-quarters (76%) of all unplanned pregnancies occur to women in their teens and twenties.1,2 While the majority of all teen pregnancies are unplanned (more than half a million unplanned pregnancies to teens each year), there are also more than one and a half million unplanned pregnancies to women in their twenties each year.

Here are some more...figures provided by http://www.abortionno.org/

• UNITED STATES
  Number of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
  Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700




• Who's having abortions (age)?
  52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%.




• Why women have abortions
  1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

In 2005 there were 11,340 abortions in Alabama alone.

Now I personally am Pro-LIFE. My mother didn't plan me, but she chose life and here I am. But this post isn't about abortion or my view on it. It's about responsibility, or as shown by the numbers above, the abundant and apparent lack of it.

The only 100% way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy is to abstain from having sex. I think we're all smart enough to know that.

That being said, I'm realistic enough to know that just because someone doesn't want to become a parent, it doesn't mean they're going to give up sex. I sure as heck wouldn't. BUT... in this day and age there is simply NO EXCUSE for grown people to be having irresponsible sex.

My twitter friend said he used protection 'but it's still possible something happened'. He also said the 'timing is off', which tells me he wasn't the only fella sticking his joy stick in this gal who's 'gone effin insane'.

Sure condoms break. But when used correctly and consistently they are proven to be 99% effective in preventing pregnancy and STDs. I've personally never had it happen to me and I've been having sex for 10 years. When I finally started having sex, I went through a (thankfully, very short lived) wild phase and immediately went to the doctor and got put on the pill. Even then I never, not one time, got so caught up in the moment that I 'forgot' to have the guy use protection. I did, by mutual consent, once choose not to use it and ended up learning a lesson I will never forget.

Of course using condoms as your only source of protection puts most of the responsibility on the guy, so if you're going to have sex, especially random sex with multiple partners wouldn't it be logical and responsible to do what you can to cover the bases more thoroughly? I mean how hard is it to schedule a quick visit to your doc ladies and ask for a prescription for birth control? Hell most health departments these days will give them away for free, or damn near.

So what's the problem? What's the excuse for all of these 'unwanted' and often murdered babies?

Plain ole' stupidity.

Unless you are in a loving committed relationship and WANT to become a parent it is your and your partner(s) responsibility to make sure you do EVERYTHING possible to prevent an 'oops'. Because children are not 'oopses'. They are not mistakes. They are not accidents. They are living, breathing God given blessings.

Just like you.

So before you decide to mount up for a round of the wild thing take a moment to think about what the consequenses are of not being responsible. And if you're too embarrassed to talk to your partner about protection then you shouldn't be having sex to begin with.