Ms. Bianca Consunji, "Timely counsel for the young", page D1, PDI,

7 August 2005

Ms. Bianca Consunji
Wednesday 2BU
Lifestyle section
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Dear Ms. Bianca,

I was shocked to read in your article ("Timely counsel for the young", page D1, PDI, August 3, 2005) grim and dangerous ways young pregnant girls use to eliminate the growing fetuses in their wombs. It lead me to ask myself: Why these girls make such decisions? What is going-on in their minds that they resort to such course of action?

I am also consoled to read in your article that there so many counseling centers existing to help these young girls cope with their problems.

I think, however, the services these centers provide are just palliative solutions to the problem of teenage pregnancy. They are only trying to remedy the symptoms of a "social disease". The problem of teenage pregnancy will not be solved if we will only use these palliative solutions. You can expect, Ms. Bianca, that these counseling centers will grow to be a major "cottage industry" in the future. Teenage pregnancy incidence is bound to increase if we will not address the real cause: the social disease.

What is the social disease, then?

In my opinion, the real cause, the social disease, is the widespread practice of contraception and contraceptive mentality. Fr. Frank Pavone (www.priestsforlife.org) claims that contraception and abortion are "fruits of the same tree". They are linked by a common mentality, the "contraceptive mentality".

(If you wish to read Fr. Pavone's article, click on the link: http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/fruitsofsametree.htm)

Thus, if we wish to solve effectively the problem of teenage pregnancy, we have to cease teaching contraception. We have to recognize that contraception is a product of utilitarianism, an ideology that regard the principle of maximum enjoyment of pleasure, with the reduction of pain to its minimum, as the ultimate rule of conduct. Pope John Paul II, in his 1994 "Letter to the Families", described utilitarianism as "a civilization of production and of use, a civilization of “things” and not of “persons,” a civilization in which persons are used in the same way as things are used. In the context of a civilization of use, woman can become an object for man, children a hindrance to parents, the family an institution obstructing the freedom of its members."

Instead of contraception, we have to inculcate to the youth the teaching of the late Pope John Paul II: the personalist norm. "This norm, in its negative aspect, states that the person is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such the means to an end. In its positive form the personalistic norm confirms this: the person is a good towards which the only proper and adequate attitude is love. ...The value of the person is always greater than the value of pleasure". (Love and Responsibility, p. 41)

We have to drown the utilitarian slogan: "no unwanted child ought to be born", by a truth rooted in the dignity of a human being: "no person, including children, ought to be unwanted". (W. May, "Marriage, the rock on which the family is built", p.38)

Thus, we have to teach the youth the ethical dimension of human sexuality. They should know that:
1) Human beings are persons, not things. They should not be used, but loved.
2) Sex is a way to manifest a free, total, faithful and fruitful love.
3) Separating the sexual act from its procreative function (contraception) destroys the true meaning of sex.
4) Contracepted sex is not a manifestation of love; it is using the other person as an instrument of selfish pleasure.
5) Contraception can lead to a contraceptive mentality, a state of mind that treat an unwanted child a nuisance.

(Should you wish to know more about the ethics of human sexuality, read a summary of the late Pope John Paul II's book "Love and responsibility" through this link: http://www.catholicculture.com/jp2_on_l&r.html.)

I hope you find reading my feedback worth your time.

With kind regards,