I am a Roman Catholic female. I believe that I should be respected as a woman in every situation: in public, in the Church, and with my future husband. I acknowledge a bias because of my faith and education at a catholic school; I also acknowledge that I have never engaged in sex and have no plan to engage in sex until I am married. Keeping these to traits in mind, I would like to express my views on society, sex, and the relating women's rights.

Society and sex are two closely tied topics. Practices and opinions associated with one usually impact the other. Sex was meant to happen from the very beginning. It is a natural, and, from what society tells me, very enjoyable. Why would God make such a rude activity trigger our pleasure centers? The answer is simple enough: More sex equals more people.

Society is all about more. More money, more fun, more fans, more anything and more everything. I agree- bigger is usually better. So why not more people? About 56 million pregnancies have been aborted in the United States since 1973, the year of Roe v. Wade. If those children came to the United States today, we would be looking at a population increase of roughly 18 percent. These figures do not take into account the many other pregnancies that have been prevented from even beginning due to birth control and emergency contraception.

I am left wondering: "What could possibly convince women to give up their children?" This is not a light or easy issue. The ones striping women of their femininity and rights are the same ones who are 'promoting' it. Instead, they are destroying the very things they are striving to protect. The times I feel most powerless as a woman are the times I hear feminists supporting birth control.

Birth control is supposed to give me sexual freedom, help me plan a family, and work other assorted miracles that I can't live without. Instead, hearing it discussed as "preventive care" and pregnancy classified as a "disease," I sense my role as a woman being put down to the level of the common cold. Society, which exists because its mothers did not use birth control, is fighting against itself.

I am a woman. I want the rest of the world to know that my choices matter. When I choose a man, it will be because I see the qualities of a good father in him. We women can usually only carry one child at a time. Sex should be a symbol of commitment and of women's voice. It should say, "I can choose anyone, but I chose you." If that message is not respected, women are not respected.

Society accepts birth control, abortion, and sexual freedom. These three things tell women that their choices do not matter- that their decisions do not matter. This is a saddening realization for a girl my age. I am about to start high school; that means dating, driving, and hard work. If what I do does not matter, how can I think that I myself matter? That is quite a blow at this point in my life when self-esteem is as important as oxygen.

Yet this is the message that young girls are getting. "What you do doesn't matter." "Go have fun." "Only worry about you." These phrases sound like the thoughts of a dog. I am more than a female bred for pleasure. I am a woman with rights- not the right to contraceptives but the rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. I have a choice- not of which brand but of which man.

I am strong enough to know that my choices count. I will not further the damage done to my sisters and to me by disrespecting my rights and responsibilities. I am a woman, and I matter.