What a surprise. Abstinence "education" isn't working. Births to teen mothers are increasing, now that we've spent 7 years throwing millions of dollars at telling teens not to have sex (oh, and if you could hold off on the eating, drinking, breathing, and other natural body functions, we'd appreciate that, too!) instead of teaching them how to use contraception.
Of course, the fundie whackjobs just lie and pretend that we still have real sex education in this country. That's a lie; the fundies took over and eviscerated real sex education and replaced it with bullshit abstinence "education."
[P]roponents of abstinence education defended the programs, blaming the rise on the ineffectiveness of conventional sex-education programs that focus on condom use and other contraceptives, as well as the pervasive depiction of sexuality in the culture.
"This shows that the contraceptive message that kids are getting is failing," said Leslee Unruh of the Abstinence Clearinghouse. "The contraceptive-only message is treating the symptom, not the cause. You need to teach about relationships. If you look at what kids have to digest on a daily basis, you have adults teaching kids about the pleasures of sex but not about the responsibilities that go with it."
That lie conveniently ignores the fact that in other countries, where they actually do teach real sex education, and where there are, as here, "pervasive depiction of sexuality in the culture" the rate of babies born to teens is far lower. [D]espite the [prior] 14-year decline, U.S. teens are still far more likely to get pregnant and have children than those in other developed countries, and teenage mothers and their children [in the U.S.] are far more likely to live in poverty.
Can we please stop this fundie bullshit? Let's teach real sex ed to kids, starting early, and making sure that they understand how to use birth control and why they should. Can we please make free, safe, effective birth control easily available to teens? I'm sick and tired of letting the fundies ruin my country.
2 comments:
Despite the millions of dollars poured into abstinence only education, amazingly nobody bothered to secure the domain name. So I did.
http://www.abstinenceonly.com
It's a Celebration of Non-Penetration!
the fundie whackjobs just lie and pretend that we still have real sex education in this country
In Civics class, you learn about the Unitary Executive. In Biology class, you learn that God Did It. In Reading class, you learn very little. In Business class, you learn how to work a cash register (like a good little retail clerk). In Music class, well, there is no more music class.
A SexEd class that teaches, "Just Say No!" is typical of the Republican approach to eduction. I wouldn't say that it has been eviscerated much more than the rest of the curriculum.
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