Funding Sex Ed Fibs
From the Washington Post (I like to switch it up every now and then):
Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy,” a congressional staff analysis has found.
- A 43-day-old fetus is a “thinking person.”
- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
- Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
- One curriculum, called “Me, My World, My Future,” teaches that women who have an abortion “are more prone to suicide” and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.
What a crock. If you believe that abstinence-only education is right, then that’s your own problem, but it’s another thing when the supporters of it use blatant lies and mislead people. [via MeFi]
And if you didn’t know it, abortions increased under Bush last term. Not decreased, and HIV infection rates are staying steady.
Yeah…that’s crazy. And I’ll bet that neither the rate of teenage pregnancies nor the number of kids losing their virginity before high school is over have decreased. Scare tactics do not work. Didn’t anyone learn anything from the failed D.A.R.E. programs?
(great post, by the way)
I think the misinformation about abortion and sterility might be explained by the rather widespread belief that multiple abortions make miscarriage in the future more likely.
I’ve heard of this numerous times.
Not sure of the studies done on this of course, it could be anecdotal, in that yes, a lot of the same people who have a lot of miscarriages, have also had multiple abortions in the past… but those people also might often have children too, and it could just be that they’re having a lot of unprotected sex, and getting pregnant more than other people.
But the study in the article simply says “fertility is not affected by elective abortion”, and I think there’s a difference between “increased chance of sterility” and “increased chance of miscarriage”. So I’d be interested in the actual distinctions and facts.
Though when one googles this topic, one is likely to get a lot of political web sites rather than a lot of medical web sites. (So much more political information on the web than medical!)
That all said, I really don’t understand how “teaching young people about “safer sex” is an invitation to have sex”… They should be honest and say “education is an acknowledgement that many adults have protected sex outside the bonds of marriage, and we don’t think adults should be doing that either.”
My office spent a large portion of yesterday twitching in response to that article. Because we’ve seen the data. These programs *do* have significant effects on unwanted pregnancies and STD rates: increasing them.
But then the proponents of these programs are not concerned with real results: they’re living in the Faith-Based Reality. Sometimes I wonder if it’s not to late to join them – the total expiation from all personal responsibility might be nice.
Hey!I had to research this for a project and this caught my eye.I have a sixteen year old friend who just had a child which proves pregnancy with teens has increased over the years.I’m in high school so I hear and talk, so trust me,most girls have lost virginity young.Most people could have HIV or AIDs, but who is going to tell if your going to be shunned?Most people don’t get tested either because their probably afraid to and if they can’t drive you’re probably scared to ask your parents.I know because I wouldn’t ask my dad to take me to a health care clinic over my dead body.Bush is a fraud.Abortions have increased and some people didn’t vote for Kerry because Kerry supports abortion, but lets just say they didn’t check their facts because Bush hasn’t helped the matter either.In fact, it’s increased.Most young people going threw abortion are more likely to commit suicide too.Let’s just say keep that in mind next time your in the booth!