I agree with much of what you wrote, however I really just want to stress that, in this situation, a teenager’s logic is going to be much different than that of an adult.

In the situations my friends went through, I believe that not using birth control was their own little way of relieving some of the guilt they may have been experiencing. They weren’t abiding by all of the Catholic laws obviously, but they were keeping some of them by not using birth control. Then, when the inevitable happened, they were scared and desperate, leading 1 of them to abortion. This happened over and over again for one of the girls that I knew. Yes – she was an idiot – a complete idiot.

Telling a teenager that they should use only abstinence as their birth control method, is in my opinion similar to a game of Russian Roulette.

The comments stated by the two friends you mentioned were both uneducated and ignorant. Not merely by youth or sole blame on your friends, but also on the Catholic teachings given by the adult role models around them. It is unjust to say this is in essence a Catholic teaching.

I am no longer a Catholic, but a Christian. The two are indeed separate. But this is besides the point. The ways I was taught about sex growing up a Catholic as a teenager was to totally abstain–at all times from sex unless for marriage. It was a very clear statement I learned growing up in the church. However I’m sure all parents feel this way across the board as well as Christians. This is something taught in the two religious beliefs. As far as contraceptives, I do not recall much about a clear “no” against birth control methods, so I cannot state that everyone feels this way about not using birth control.

It’s the fact that the statement made was “we do not believe in birth control” that gets me. Catholics, Christians, Pro Lifers, all believe in life, not death, so as much as an adamant statement that it was to say that against birth control, Some thought should have been given to the fact that an abortion is also murder and we all know “Thou shalt not kill.” You see, things get mixed up far too much when someone wants to mix religion and the bible with their habits and opinions. The right things get mixed with the wrong things and then you say things like “we don’t believe in birth control” but apparently, you’ve had more than one abortion…We live in a sad sad world. Ask questions…