Sex Education Politics

Harvard University released the results of a comprehensive study on abstinence pledges. The National Institute of Child Health and Development conducted the government-sponsored study. Over 14,000 teenagers were interviewed between 1995 and 2001. The study found that 52 percent who took the pledge had sex within one year of doing so.

When will these Religious nuts realize that knowledge and science will always prove that it is the only way to teach our children about what they need to know, to live their lives and to be productive Americans?
These Republican Right-wing non-thinkers still believe in tales and wishful thinking. The saddest part of this, is the children who are left with all of their feelings and normal urges without the knowledge of what it is and how to make sound choices for themselves. Why do we have driver’s education classes, but not sex education classes?

The research shows that we would all be safer on the roads, if people were not allowed to drive until they were over 26 years old. Why not a “Worth the Wait to Drive” program? It would save many lives, it would save much money on insurance paid by the families of teenagers. But, we know that this is impossible to enforce. Children need to go places and the way that most American’s get somewhere is to drive.

More children’s lives are destroyed by unprotected sex, both in sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, than by teenage drivers. No one has any objections to teaching teenagers how to be good, responsible drivers, but teenagers still are the worst drivers out there. What would they be like without the knowledge that drivers education gives them. But to teach and give knowledge about one of human beings basic natural instincts, to have sex and procreate, horror of horrors, no!

The urge to drive, to get away from parents, to go where and go when we want to go, to drive with the wind in our hair and our music playing loudly is strong and not to be denied. We know that we can protect our teenagers better with education. That with knowledge they will probably make better choices. That they will be safer and all of the rest of us on the roads will be safer. If you take the religious and moral beliefs out of this issue, we would make sure that all teenagers are taught everything about all subjects. Teach them all the truths, and tell them of all the untruths. Yes, even Sex.

Well, what if the teenagers learn something that they did not know. Won’t it make it more likely that they will want to try it? Maybe. But there are many things that I have knowledge about, which I have no desire to try. Both sexually and in other areas of life. Sexual education does not make teenagers go out and “do it”. What it does give them is the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. To protect themselves from the normal human urges, until they are ready for that step to becoming a sexual human being. Yes, our hope as parents is that they wait. But, it is their life and they must make up their own minds about what is best for them.
Teaching children about all that is part of human life is the most important job we have as humans. Knowledge about drugs, alcohol, sex, truth, honesty, work ethics, treatment of others, care for themselves and others, these are the important issues.

Knowledge will forever win out over beliefs. This Administration and it’s Cabal of believers have done a great disservice not only to our teenagers, but to our environment, to our foreign policies, to our economy, to our Constitution, to our lives. It is far past time, that we throw out all those who put their religious beliefs into our laws and policies and go with those who use the knowledge for the good of our country and the world.

Come to the light, to the knowledge. Forsake the dark-side. Those who are still in the dark ages. Those who want to take us back to those days.

Conservative Republicans have aggressively funded abstinence-only education programs since President Bush took office. Over 100 such programs have been funded in recent years. Congress allocated $168 million for abstinence programs in last year’s budget. This year, $182 million was funded for abstinence-only education, and $204 million has been allocated for 2007. But it isn’t benefiting our nation’s teenagers.

In 2004 the House of Representative’s Government Reform Committee issued a report on federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs. The report determined that out of the 13 most popular programs, 11 contained “unproved claims [and] outright falsehoods.” Some of the false statements included assertions that a man can get a woman pregnant by merely touching her, that women who have abortions are prone to suicide, that AIDS can be spread through sweat, and that condoms cannot prevent sexually transmitted diseases. Clearly, these programs supplanted science with political ideology.
Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) held a conference on sexually transmitted diseases. The conference was slated to include a panel discussion entitled “Are Abstinence-Only Until Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?” However, Indiana’s Republican Congressman Mark Souder complained to the Health and Human Services Department about “the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective.” Consequently, the title was changed to “Public Health Strategies of Abstinence Programs for Youth,” and advocates of abstinence-only sex education replaced two members of the panel. It’s troubling that a conservative Republican was able to wield so much influence over a federal agency at the expense of science.

A spokesman for Rep. Souder said he was concerned that the panel would promote nothing positive about abstinence-only education. Apparently, that was because one of the panelists was scheduled to address the evidence linking abstinence-only education and rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases. This panelist and another individual were removed from the panel and replaced by Dr. Patricia Sulak and another physician, both of whom are proponents of abstinence-only programs. Although the other panelists went through a peer-review screening process, neither of these individuals did. And while the other panelists had to pay their own way to attend, the CDC used taxpayer dollars to pay for both abstinence proponents.
Dr. Sulak is the director and author of a pseudo sex education program entitled “Worth the Wait.” This program is used in grades six through high school in 31 school districts in Texas. According to a review of the program by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Worth the Wait relies on messages of fear, discourages contraception, and attempts to make students feel guilty rather than educating them.
The Worth the Wait program discourages any meaningful discussion of contraception. An entire lesson is entitled “Why Contraceptives are not the Answer for Teens.” Dr. Sulak apparently believes that if contraception is presented as improper, teens will simply choose not to have sex. Yet studies suggest that almost half of all teenagers are sexually active. By refusing to discuss contraception, this program leaves teenagers more likely to engage in sex without contraceptives, making them susceptible to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
It was inappropriate for Congressman Souder to exert so much influence over a federal agency. And it’s offensive that the Bush administration allowed him to do so. Science should remain free from political persuasion and ideology. The health and welfare of the country’s teenagers depend on abstaining from sex education politics. {Source}