Texas Sex-Ed Textbooks Face Contraceptives Battle

[Ruffhowse]

Texas Sex-Ed Textbooks Face Contraceptives Battle

Thu Aug 5, 8:29 AM ET

By Jon Herskovitz

DALLAS (Reuters) - The lesson for Texas teens is that the only safe sex is no sex, and that may be a lesson that heads nationwide.



Texas educators are debating what will be taught in new sexual education textbooks for its high school students. The 15-member Texas Board of Education is considering and will likely approve four books, all of which extol the virtues of abstinence. Three make no mention of contraceptives at all while one makes passing reference to condoms.


Critics are crying foul, saying that a lesson of abstinence alone is dangerous because it could lead to more teen pregnancies and more teens becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases.


The battle in Texas has national implications because the state is the second-biggest market for textbooks in the United States. Books approved by the state's school board are typically marketed nationally.


According to Centers for Disease Control figures, Texas has been among the top five states in the country for teen-age pregnancies for several years.


When he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush pushed for an abstinence-based sexual education curriculum. He raised his concerns to a national level when he said in this year's State of the Union address: "We will double federal funding for abstinence programs, so schools can teach this fact of life: Abstinence for young people is the only certain way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases."


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040805/lf_nm/life_books_dc

Looks like the wacko fundymentalists in Texas want to screw up the rest of the country's sex ed programs as much as theirs. I wish they'd get a life.

[WindRavenX]

1. abstinence-based sex-ed is extremely flawed

That said, it's common sense to teach that the only way to not get preggers or contact any STIs is, of course, not to have sex. But that only works in a fantasy world where teenagers don't have sex. And that is why any and all abstinence-based sex-ed classes won't work- they ignore the fact that, gasp, teenagers ARE engaging in sexual activity even though these educators are wagging their finger at them and telling them not to.
Teenagers aren't stupid, I'd add (I'm 19-does that still count as a teen?), and quite frankly, a lot of these sex-ed classes are extremely condensending towards teens. Present the facts on all sides. Educate them so they may make the RIGHT choice for them!
Instead of making this a moral issue, which is sadly what this is all about, sex ed should ALWAYS be a HEALTH issue- and that means discussing proper methods of contraceptive methods.

[drhilarius]

2. Furthermore, Better sex-ed..

should lead, hopefully, to a decrease in abortion. The logic is, simply put, if you teach kids about contraception, then they won't get pregnant and require abortions. I just wish they could see that by compromising on the sex-ed issue they could reduce, and perhaps eradicate, something they find abominable without resorting to legislation that limits choice.

[WindRavenX]

3. exactly

Those who oppose better sex-ed classes (that is, rejecting anything but abstinence based sex-ed with no mention of contraceptive options like proper condom use)also oppose abortion but seem to be unwilling to decrease the occurance of abortion by having more comprehensive and, ultimately, realistic sex-ed. It doesn't make sense to me because it would be great if the number of abortions as a method of birth control could be cut- it could be decreased by a lot, I believe, if our sex-ed was better and treated, again, as a health issue and not a moral issue.

[Nay]

4. Sorry, everything has to be turned into a fundie wacko moral

issue in this country. Didn't you get the memo? They don't just want fewer abortions -- they want to control your body and sexual activity from its very beginning.

[depakid]

5. Texas is an utter disgrace

I feel sorry for decent people who have to live there-

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Fact: Texas is where the battle for textbooks for the rest of the country

takes place. Controversial topics such as evolution, physical science, American history, sociology, basal readers, etc. are the fodder for a committee in Texas which attempts to eliminate, and if failure to do so, then to severely minimalize, their information.

But this intellectual butchery does not only affect the children of Texas. It affects children throughout this country because this is where textbooks are published and from which they are distributed.

Mel and Norma Gabler (Texas, of course) routinely scan textbooks in order to edit anything "un-Christian" from them. They are mentioned in the article below.

http://washingtontimes.com/specialreport/20040328-125027-5592r.htm

[truthisfreedom]

7. they want MORE babies. they want more conservatives, because it's the only

way they can see of staying in power. they want more babies like the Catholic church wants more babies... more money for the church, more money for the GOP.

[Palacsinta]

8. What? No coke douches or scalding hot baths?

......included in the curriculum? Those are two methods of birth control that I heard about in the sixties when I was asking about birth control. Got the info from an older girl who was my only source. Yeah, right, abstinence only. That'll work.

[SkipNewarkDE]

9. Parental Permission

When I was a kid, we had to have a signed permission slip from our parent to participate in the required sexual education class. Don't know if that is the case today, but that is one thing I recall about health class, when we first talked about DOING IT.