The publisher of the Boise State University’s coupon book recently made the decision to remove advertisements offering condom coupons. The book is passed out to students on campus as well as in the bookstore. According to bookstore managers on Boise’s campus, they received complaints from both students and parents of students attending the school in regards to the advertisement.’ The ads, which were put in the book by The O! Zone Condom Shop, provide coupons for condom purchases, making it easier for students to access condoms at the shop and, in a sense, promote safe sex among students. Students across Boise’s campus were shocked to see the ad missing this year.
As an abstinent student, it is hard to believe the removal of condom ads from a coupon book could possibly promote abstinence. In the university atmosphere and across the United States in general, sex is everywhere.’ On clothes, in television ads, magazines, and so on; it’s hard to stay away from. Yet the parents and students that complained believe that the removal of these ads could stop it from happening? That seems highly unlikely.’
The removal of these ads could very well increase the possibility of a negative outcome from premarital, sex such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), and HIV.’ In 2006, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,030,911 chlamydial infections were reported in the U.S. and 358,366 cases of gonorrhea were also reported. Syphilis cases reported to the CDC increased 11.8 percent from 8,724 cases in 2005 to 9,756 in 2006. These rates were all during the time when the coupons were readily available in the ad books on Boise’s campus and now that the coupons are removed, these numbers could very well increase.
Now let’s say, for instance, students don’t necessarily know where to get condoms or can’t afford to buy them, despite the fact that they are available in most campus health centers. It is very probable that these students are going to have sex anyway, condom or not.’
Removing condom ads from college campuses won’t stop students from having sex; it may very well increase STD rates. Condoms work 97 percent of the time when used correctly. Now, without them being available, that percentage becomes a negative factor, making students that are having pre-marital sex 97 percent more likely to contract a deadly disease such as HIV, STDs, or become pregnant. Is it likely that the parents that complained at Boise State University did not think of the fact that their requests of the condom coupon removal could increase their child’s chance of contracting an STD or even getting pregnant.
If the ads were offending parents, they should have thought twice about the fact that these ads could be protecting their son or daughter. They could be setting their own college students up for disaster. Those students that complained about the books, if having pre-marital sex, are more likely to contract a disease or infection from someone else on campus. If a message of abstinence is what parents want, it should start at home, then maybe college-bound students will stick with this lifestyle, as many have.’ ‘ ‘
Abstinence is a life choice, not something that can be forced on people. Of course in a perfect world no one would have sex until after marriage. Many regret pre-marital sex even now.
Unfortunately, this is not that world, and pre-marital sex is all too common. When parents realize this, maybe they can start to talk to their children about it, and install these values in their children’s lives at an earlier age. In many cases these values, not forced, could very well prevent their children from participating in pre-marital sex. Promotion of condom usage on college campuses is a way of educating students on safe sex. Education is the reason why most people go to college, isn’t it? Denial about sex won’t prevent anything.
