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Comment by neap24 | Hacker News Reader

Meh. Maybe this would have been a bigger deal when birth control was difficult to acquire, but the price has dropped so drastically it’s practically free these days. Also, I thought the narrative was that High Schoolers were having less sex than ever anyway.

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Relying on birth control pills and other primarily woman-oriented techniques leaves 100% of the downsides to the woman (from health risks to emotional challenges and beyond). Comparatively, a condom has barely any downside for anyone involved.

Come on man. Condoms are a fantastic and effective public health intervention. But they definitely make sex feel 70% worse, there is a downside.

70% is a bit dramatic. The pills do not protect against STDs. Also, when I was a teen, I did the math. Having 70% "worse" sex was actually 100% better than having 0% sex.

In a magical universe where everyone's parents are health-literate and willing to take their 16 year old daughter to the doctor's office to get birth control, maybe this line of reasoning might make sense. But in reality, you have a lot of teenagers who are going to have sex but live in a situation where getting birth control is not feasible. This goes a long way toward making sure they stay safe.

Birth control requires a prescription. Potentially a giant barrier, even if only mentally.

Let the guy share some of the responsibility.

> Let the guy share some of the responsibility.

They should share 100% of the responsibility for their ejaculate

Plus birth control pills have side effects

You must have missed the news that a certain group in the USA enjoys attempts at specifically controlling (genetically) female sexual activity, and people who want to do normal human things are sometimes legally forced to put as many compensating controls on the (genetically) male part of the population. And then there's the collection of non-pregnancy related issues that are mitigated when using a condom, so perhaps birth control is both more relevant and less relevant than you might think.

It's at least $1 per condom (if buying last minute, at a convenience store) and requires going out of the way to get them. As another comment noted, if having a condom wasn't a signal of intention then I think it would help with usage.

Purely anecdotally, I think the problem is less about the financial burden and more about high-school students being socially awkward and afraid to admit they might have sex, especially to adults at the cash register.

Of course we could also install vending machines, but it's unclear if putting a vending machine in every school, in multiple discrete places where students wouldn't be embarrassed to access it, would recoup the cost.

> High Schoolers were having less sex than ever anyway.

I thought so too until I moved to a small town in Ohio, and learned about teen pregnancies.

May be less teen having sex but more teens having unprotected sex because they wanted to get their noodle wet.

Also birth control does nothing for STDs...

I mean it is possible that right wing judges like Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas will try to ban birth control nationally.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/13/23505459/...

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