I apologize, to myself for the most part, for not being timely on this. I lost my head on my working vacation, wasting my free time ensconced in Middle English prose, and it slipped my mind.
The hole in the head gang, otherwise known as the National Abstinence Education Association, lobbied Congress today to encourage continuation of funding for “Abstinence Only” programs. With Obama cutting programs they wanted to be sure to push for continuation of one of the most proven ineffective, wasteful examples of ways to spend your money. And, oh my god, they were expecting 500 teenagers to attend the lobby, proving, they say, that teenagers really support this thing. Saying 500 potential teenagers at a lobby proves teenagers support this thing is about as erroneous as much of the information taught in these programs. Last time I checked there were about 30 to 40 million teenagers in this country right? Their interpretation technique is certainly creative, I’ll give them that.
Millions of your dollars have gone to these programs, with little to suggest they do anything but harm. The teen birth rate is up 3 percent nationally, the first time in 15 years that we have seen any increase, and in some states it is up much higher, with highest teen birth rates in the South and Southwest. One in four teenage girls is infected with an STD. Much of the empirical evidence out there suggests a comprehensive approach to sex education works best and offers the best chances of prevention of both pregnancy and disease. Not to mention abstinence only seems to do even more harm to the ever vulnerable — the less educated and those on the lower tiers of the socioeconomic ladder.
Another cog in their wheel of deception, this group in particular, to fire up the anti-abortion crowd, likes to label the people who oppose “abstinence only” the “pro-abortion people”. You see it constantly in their rhetoric, yet if you look around on the web you will notice the increasing trend of pro-life people screaming out against abstinence only education. They are also pretty fond of slut shaming, and blaming the increase in teenage pregnancy on movies like Juno.
So, if you don’t mind, in your free time, get on the phone or computer and let your legislators know that this has to end. Unless you have some insidious sense of national pride about the fact we have one of the highest rates of teenage births and STI’s in the industrialized/ technologized world.
To make it easier I’ll do all the grunt work, here ya go.
Exploratory links:
Just a sample of some crazy pissed of rantings out of Texas, though you have to understand Texas have been suffering for much longer because Bush instituted this useless program there long before he got to us.
Buzz: Sex Ed in Texas Gets an “F“
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Accuracy, Efficacy And Ethics Of Abstinence-only Programs Questioned By Public Health Experts
Comprehensive Sex Education: What are the arguments? What is the evidence?
Abstinence-Only Ed Sez, “You can’t rape a slut!”
Abstinence-Only a Failure, Latest Research Shows
US clergy call for an end to abstinence-only sex education
Peace
I so want to say “of my ass”, but I’m way to old for such an exhibit of immaturity.
Thanks for reminding me of this. Alabama has an appalling sex education program that is full of misinformation. Essentially they are telling kids that condoms do not decrease the risk of any STD but HIV. They back this claim up with an NIH study done in 2001. What they fail to say is that the CDC held a workshop to evaluate the NIH study and released a report not only detailing the downfalls of epidemiological studies, but stated that in a lab environment it is physically impossible for those viruses to pass through a latex barrier. Concluding that condoms, used correctly, are incredibly effective in reducing STDs. Yep, the kids never hear about that part…
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I really don’t think anyone cares about sex education or the diseases related to it anymore. Why do you have to pay for school programs anyway just make them part of a curriculum.
I haven’t been up on news – nothing penetrates my rapidly aging brain because of the audit and moving however:
yesterday Bristol Palin announced (or her mother’s reps did) that she and Levi broke up.
If her education had included sex ed she might have made another choice
Belle is absolutely right about condoms. For those of us who lived through the AiDS epidemic when it was a death sentence and the sickness itself was more than horror, condoms are a necessity.
it’s common sense that if condoms reduce HIV they will reduce other STD’s. Actually we tell the kids in our lives to use them and we do supply them not because we fear HIV but everything else
I have been thinking about blaming Juno which did nothing to make teenage pregnancy cool. personally I wish she had thought longer about having the fetus aborted than moving straight to the adoption angle and I am adopted but it was a movie
That her father and step mother were accepting – well they did say to each other they wished it were something easy like heavy drugs. While that was very funny it wasn’t a joke
I think Juno should be required viewing in every tenth grade class as it brings up many issues. If solved sort of easily, again it was a movie but it left me still thinking months after seeing it as I could relate from almost all angles
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I have a reader full of things which flit past me at lightening speed daily. I just happened to catch this one.
You know this state still accepts the funding so a lot of schools still teach abstinence only, and the pregnancy rate has increased for the first time in some time, the schools follow the extra penny here.
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That is what happened in this county but they are not teaching it anymore, again. It is all about the money that went along with it.
Ah, I don’t mind. I still remember catholic schoolgirls fondly.
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That I’ve never been, though my brother was a Catholic school boy.
But I’m glad you don’t mind.
Middle English —->slightly more doable than Old English.
What is it that these people don’t understand about this not working?
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They understand all right.
Well, we could talk for hours about Old English vs Middle English, but hopefully we won’t.
what ever happened to Parents educating their children…
it seems to me that the creators of these programs have very little sense and much less intelligence :0
have a good weekend Cooper…
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We are overrun with “silly people”. It endemic didn’t you hear?
I’m surprised anyone is still giving them the time of day.
It’s not time they want it’s money and they’ve been getting plenty.
“The hole in the head gang” — bless you my child.
Like looking at Juno would make anyone wanna get pregnant.
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“Like looking at Juno would make anyone wanna get pregnant.“
She certainly looked uncomfortable throughout.
I almost married a former Catholic school girl.
She didn’t believe in abstinence, either. And the horror to think that she’s never been divorced!
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