Amy Potter: Preaching abstinence and ignoring the issue

I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw the cover. It was tacky and overdone. It was egregious and mostly, it was unrealistic. I'm talking about Newsweek magazine's cover story on Dec. 9, 2002, which was entitled, "Choosing Virginity." The cover showed two angelic teenagers -- a cute, red-haired girl with not a blemish to be seen and her all-American boyfriend, dressed in an Abercrombie shirt and faded blue jeans. I forced myself to read the article, which profiled a group of teenagers living in everyday America, all still proudly carrying around their "V" cards, as it's politely referred to in the article. As the article drones on and on about how my favorite cover models are so incredibly good, it gives off a tone of judgment. To me, it conveyed the message that abstinence is the right choice and that those who pursue a virtuous path are inherently superior. In addition, the subjects who were interviewed, photographed and praised all cited the presence of religion as a motivating factor in their decision. But my biggest problem with this article was not just that I felt judged or berated for my choices, but that it was overly idealistic. I'm glad that these two senior writers for Newsweek had enough time to search through America's high schools and find a handful of abstinent specimens. And that's great that our favorite American all-stars, who have found God and denounced sinful activity, can get along just fine without sex. But when it comes down to it, America's youth is sexually active -- expecting a push for abstinence as a cure just isn't going to work. I'm not promoting the abandonment of an abstinence campaign entirely, but there is another side to this issue, and that is abortion. The debate over abortion is a battle within the borders of the United States that has been going on for entirely too long. Three decades ago, the Supreme Court made its ruling in Roe v. Wade, making abortion in the early stages of pregnancy legal. And since then, for a full 30 years, the raging debate between pro-life and pro-choice camps has only intensified. Somehow, the same old back-and-forth debate exists today almost exactly as it did in the early 1970s. There is a plethora of superfluous statistics that I could rattle off. But perhaps the most interesting stat is that since 1973, the rate of abortions has remained fairly constant. In 2002, the number of abortions performed hit its lowest point since 1974. In the past few months, and particularly since George W. Bush stepped into the White House in 2001, the issue of abortion has returned to the forefront of national controversy. Bush leaves no room for doubt in his opinion on the matter, which has pro-choice supporters scared into demonstration. "I ask you to protect infants at the very hour of birth and end the practice of partial-birth abortion," Bush said Tuesday night in his State of the Union address. Bush's strong words are becoming more and more worrisome to the pro-choice camp, now that he has a Republican Congress to back him up in addition to the looming possibility of a Supreme Court appointment. If a Supreme Court judge should retire -- which is expected to happen sometime in the near future -- it is likely that Bush would appoint a pro-life replacement and thereby swing the Court's judgment in favor of the abolition of abortion. But after 30 years of endless debate, it's clear that there will never be one answer that is entirely acceptable to all parties. And so, at this point, the best course of action is not the extreme. It's not possible for the average teenage American to live up to the idealistic lifestyle promoted in Newsweek's one-sided article. And at the same time, Bush pushing to overturn an institution that has survived and stabilized during 30 years of practice is inappropriate. "Abortion on demand" shouldn't be the status quo, but accepting the reality of the situation is the only possible avenue. Amy Potter is a junior World History major from Albuquerque, N.M. and executive editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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