Here’s an interesting, if not altogether unsurprising, graphic I found over on Sociological Images.

You should read it yourself, but the gist is that people were asked about how much planning went into their first child, and 47% said “it just happened.” The graphic delves deeper into what those 47% said when asked more specific questions.

A particularly salient quote from the piece:

Then again… maybe the ideology of near-perfect control of reproduction is a luxury afforded mostly to privileged classes.

Now, feel free to disagree with said conclusion and to draw your own. And I will agree with some of the comments that the very phrase “just happened” is certainly vague enough to potentially mess with the results to some degree.
But I do think it’s important to note, as many of us no doubt assume without actually having the evidence to prove it, that those who are given less education, those with less privilege, are those who end up in such difficult situations far more often than everyone else.

This reinforces some of the conversations we’ve had recently, though with a different focus this time. Education, whether it’s about other cultures or birth control, is the key to closing the yawning chasms between the classes.

You hear about people who’ve been told that Coca-Cola works as spermicide, and you laugh, because that shit is funny. But then they’re struggling to support a family while we’re deciding what major to choose as a sophomore, and we put them out of our minds.

I suppose the point here is to remember that even if a person is intelligent, if you’ve never been given the chance to know the whole truth about something, chances are it may bite you in the ass. And there are a whole bunch of folks who’ve been bitten simply because they weren’t privileged enough to get all the information we take for granted.

So, simple as it seems to us, let’s not forget how lucky we are that we know how condoms work (or at least, I hope you do), and can, most of us, choose when we’re ready to embark on parenthood instead of relying on a soft drink as a contraceptive.

Peace and love,
Justin PBG