Reply #14: I've sent my email

[noamnety]

Dear Mr. Marshall,

Your recently introduced bill HB 1807 making it a felony to prevent minors from getting pregnant is long overdue (no pun intended). Young people who are victims of statutory rape get off (again, no pun intended) far too easily in this country. Teens and preteens need to learn to respect their elders, like the bible says, and quit trying to weasel out of getting pregnant if that’s what their older partner has decided is best for them. They ought to be taught from a young age that the purpose of sex is procreation, and what better way to do that than to outlaw their access to birth control?

Some short-sighted people will probably suggest that a better option would be to require reporting suspected cases of statutory rape to child protection services. But that sends the wrong message. It tells people that the crime is the rape itself, when we all know the real goal is to make sure we don’t prevent more teen pregnancies. Your law makes that distinction nicely.

I thought of a good analogy for this. It’s like if someone steals my identity and forges a check, we should think about not focusing so much on the person who did that, but instead find out who gave them the pen. That’s the person who really enabled the whole situation, if you think about it.

You can use that analogy in a press release, if you want.

Also, if you want help writing a bill to make it a felony to give pens to criminals, I’d be happy to help with that. And I promise to use a computer, not a pen!

When it comes to teen pregnancies, let's make the "write" choice!