Reply #16: No, it's an argument advanced by those of us who

[DemBones DemBones]

are aware of Big Pharm's obscene profit margins and somewhat cavalier attitude about patient safety. (The FDA is bad, too, will approve almost any drug.)

It's a myth that fundamentalists are more concerned about their kids having sex than about their health. I taught biology in three small towns in the Bible Belt, always taught about human reproduction and included detailed contraception and AIDS information, and never had a single complaint from a parent.

One year, I was teaching in a middle school and another teacher and I proposed a sex ed program to the principal. He approved it, though he joked with us that he'd be the one who'd be tarred and feathered. Now this was an area where most families were members of Pentecostal churches or sects (including a snake handling sect) or some variety of Baptist church, usually more conservative than most Southern Baptist churches. There were kids who were not allowed to go to the movies because Jesus might come while they were at the movies and they'd be "left behind" (although this was before the books came out.)

But not one parent complained that we were doing this and some made a point of telling the principal they were glad it was being done. Only one kid's parents refused to allow him to participate.