memo to rethugs- abstinence only losing ground

it comes as no surprise to me that abstinence only programs don’t work.

“A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.”

i was a teenager- and gee, i had sex.  it’s a pretty simple concept really- put hundreds of hormonally charged teenagers into a great big concrete box sitting side by side- sex happens.  and no, i am not calling america’s schools ‘breeding grounds’, but the after school hours are often unsupervised, especially with older teens.  anyway, according to a new poll, parent’s overwhelmingly support age appropriate sex education.  imagine that.

“The poll indicates that 81 percent of African-American parents who attend church once a week or more, and 85 percent of those who identify as Evangelical Christians, support age-appropriate comprehensive sex education. Studies done in Catholic schools of age-appropriate K-12 sex ed demonstrate its effectiveness.”

imagine that most normal folks in america aren’t into the creepy purity balls where fathers take their prepubescent and teenaged daughters to what amounts to incestuous proms- and most realize that young people will have sex because it’s nature.  sex isn’t ugly and dirty outside of marriage (well, i suppose it could be if you are into that sort of thing) and it’s only the holier-than-thou crazy christian groups rattling the cage to get contraception out of schools and out of pharmacies.  looks like that worked out well for sarah palin and her daughter.  hopefully, she gets her head out of her ass soon- she has 2 more daughters at home- and bristol, apparently, is pretty fertile.

“By the way, as has been pointed out, Palin backed abstinence-only education during her 2006 gubernatorial race. In an Eagle Forum Alaska questionnaire, Palin gave this response to the following question:

Will you support funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex-education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Palin: Yes, the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.”