I found this June opinion piece today, plus a satirical short 2016 video that I thought was lost.

Here's the latter:

"Parody Video Hilariously Shows What Would Happen If Men Had To Worry About Birth Control"
(it's under three minutes and it mentions the cost of condoms)

https://www.scarymommy.com/when-guys-go-off-their-birth-control-parody-video

But, more seriously:

"How the Conservative Movement Sees Birth Control Today"

"Hadley Heath Manning is vice president for policy at Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Voice."

https://global.bihardainik.com/2023/06/25/opinion-how-the-conservative-movement-sees-birth-control-today/

Excerpt:

....Women may have been, in some ways, the biggest winners of the pill-precipitated sexual revolution, but we have also been its biggest losers. Women are less likely to want casual sex but more likely to feel pressured into it and to experience negative feelings afterward. We might consider that even the mental health crisis may stem at least in part from casual sex or the lie of “sex without consequences.”...

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The trouble with the phrase "sex without consequences" is that all too often, one can't be sure whether or not OTHER such speakers are condemning people for wanting to have sex without the threat of pregnancy. Yes, it's sad that women's hearts get broken. Yes, girls need to be warned - gently - that that's a common result of premarital sex for women, even when it isn't casual sex. That hardly means that we'd be better off to go back to the days when single women couldn't even BUY female birth control. Or that most young women today engage in casual sex, over and over. (I suspect most don't.) After all, even asexual people are coming out of the closet and demanding respect for their boundaries. Not to mention people who DO want sex but will never want children, whether they marry or not.

(I mean, one could argue that it's a crime against nature - and God - when people insist on going out in the rain and using...an umbrella! In fact, there WAS religious condemnation of umbrellas in England, under three centuries ago, believe it or not. After all, heavenly rain clearly meant that God wanted people to get wet or stay home.)

And, despite what she implied, last I heard, the states banning abortion are not eager to help unmarried ADULT couples, let alone unmarried teen couples. Or even married women who are poor and want safe, effective FEMALE birth control. (As everyone should know by now, poor women are often not in a position to insist on condom use.)

Anyway, while I don't know what's being taught in the comprehensive sex ed courses in high schools, nowadays, here are a few lessons that I think should be at the top of the list, not just for the sake of young people's financial futures, but for the sake of their hearts as well.

1. Even if you're part of a couple that uses the Pill, you have to use an extra, artificial contraceptive - Every Time, like it or not. (The Pill has a real-life failure rate of 6%-7%, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.)

2. Even if you're a heterosexual male, if YOU don't want a pregnancy, it's YOUR job to make sure two contraceptives get used. Every Time. Why? See the following...

3. People aren't robots. Nor are they put on this earth to obey your every whim. Therefore, it shouldn't surprise anyone when the other person forgets to stop by the drugstore and pick up the pills or condoms, which is why YOU have to be the one to remember - and then make sure they're being USED. Or when, in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, either you or the other person suddenly has a stubborn change of heart on what the two of you previously agreed on. That's life, and that's why proper contraception use is so important.

4. Contrary to what one sees in movies and romance novels, here is no such thing as purely spontaneous, romantic sex, except maybe between elderly or gay people in long-term relationships. Why? Because even if you firmly believes in saving sex for marriage, chances are you really don't want a baby every year or even right away. So that means a very unromantic, scheduled appointment/consultation with your doctor, with or without your partner in the room. (And, for anyone who doesn't know, a woman can't just start using the Pill on her wedding night.)

5. Finally, the trouble with both sex and abstinence (Manning didn't mention this) is that EITHER one can delude you into thinking you've found a good person to marry, especially when you're a teen. Here's a test. Would you marry this person if he or she were suddenly in a wheelchair, forever? Also - would you want a child if suddenly you were the only person available to support and RAISE that child? If not, don't do it.

To add to #4:

On top of that, you need to make sure your partner is healthy – and all too often, people have STIs and don’t know it. You don’t want to find out too late that your partner IS infected, so you HAVE to ask, before the wedding: “When did you last get checked for all STIs?”