Avoid an "Unintended Presidency” - Know Your Options!

I just wanted to introduce you all to my newest feature on the Contraception Site. Beginning next week, be on the look out for my twice weekly: Avoiding an "Unintended Presidency” blog, where, each week, I will highlight a different candidate’s position on reproductive and sexual health/education issues. People turn to contraception as a means of family planning and avoiding unwanted pregnancies. In order to prevent the conception of the wrong president, we may need to put some of our family planning skills to use. These blogs will help inform you where presidential hopefuls fall on issues that could possibly put a damper on your sex life. Using “presidential contraception” will hopefully prevent an unintended president as well as a possible STD (we don’t need any more single-minded organisms spreading through our government and further infecting the country). Please check-in every Tuesday to read my Know your Republican Choices blog entry. Then, check back on Thursday to read: Discovering Your Democratic Options.

2008 is gearing up to be an influential and possibly history-making election year. As Americans, we have the ability to decide who we want to run our country. Given the current disillusioned state of affairs that President Bush has inflicted upon our nation, it is up to all of us to critically choose who our next Commander-In Chief should be. Those of you between 18-24 years of age could be a crucial factor in our next election since this age group had the lowest voting turnout in the last election with only 17% of you all voting (which means that about 83% of you did not!).

I cannot stress to you all the importance of registering to vote (since approximately 30% of US citizens are not registered) and actually voting! I also wanted to quickly emphasize another point. Who we choose to be our next president will have a dramatic effect on funding and policies that could include reproductive health issues, access to birth control, research for newer and more effective contraceptive options, accurate and available sex education, and abortion (a person’s right to choose what to do with one’s own body). In general, the compromising of these rights will have the greatest impact on US citizens age 40 and younger (those who are in child-bearing years; those wanting to control their family size or are not ready to become parents; those most likely to be using the current available birth control methods).

• Only 27% of people age 18-40 voted in our last election as opposed to 54% of people age 40 and above.

The implications? The people who’s lives will be the most negatively impacted by restrictions in these public policies need to step up and have their voices heard in the next election – you cannot allow the segment of our population who will be minimally affected by having their reproductive and sexual rights taken away have double the votes in this upcoming election.

Population-wise, about 45% of US citizens between the ages of 18-40 are eligible to register and vote, and around 55% of those over the age of 40 can vote. Given that these two age groups are relatively close in the number of votes they can cast, we cannot take the risk of letting half of the country’s votes account for twice the power of the other half! This is an important time to be informed about our nation’s politics and to be active in choosing the right person to lead our country and protect our rights! Know your options – we MUST avoid an unintended presidency.

Photo Courtesy of Microsoft Online