Abstinence 1, S-Chip 0: In compromise, Dems agree to increase funds for abstinence-only sex ed

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT op-ed: Abstinence 1, S-Chip 0
By AMANDA ROBB
Published: October 18, 2007

DEMOCRATIC leaders are right to contest President Bush’s veto of their bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance program. But sadly, their “bipartisan compromise” will leave millions of young Americans vulnerable to sickness and suffering of the most preventable kind.

To entice Republicans to support the bill, the House of Representatives agreed to increase money for abstinence-only sex education by $28 million, to a total of about $200 million a year. Abstinence-only courses, the only form of federally financed sex ed, teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to cause psychological and physical harm. If that were true, our health care system would be not only broken, but besieged. A 2002 survey found that 93 percent of American adults had had premarital sex by the age of 30.

In addition to provoking shame about a nearly universal activity, abstinence-only sex education is ineffective and dangerous. Last April, a 10-year study found that students who took abstinence-only courses were no more likely to abstain from sex than other students. Previous studies revealed that abstinence-only students avoid using contraception.

Programs in public schools teach patently false information like “the chances of getting pregnant with a condom are one out of six” and H.I.V. “may be in your body for a long time (from a few months to as long as 10 years or more) before it can be detected.”

The results are tragic. The United States has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the developed world (about the same as Ukraine’s), and the highest abortion rate in the Western world. Sexually transmitted infections like syphilis and gonorrhea are on the rise for the first time since the 1980s, and chlamydia is being diagnosed twice as often as it was a decade ago....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/opinion/18robb.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. my gawd, we vote for a program that fails, and they vote against a

program that works.

how fucked up is that?

[Richard Steele]

7. That's what our "leaders" call a "compromise" these days. Disgusting. nm

[Freedomofspeech]

2. What the hell is the matter with them?

Don't they watch Boston Legal? I cannot believe they would allow funding for abstinence only education. What bullshit.

[Occulus]

3. So they're letting them get sick

AND get stupid.

Niiiiice.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Hilarious. 200 million a year to teach teenagers not to do something they're going

to do eventually anyway. That's a hell of a lot of money for nothing.

[robinlynne]

16. worse than nothing.

[The Stranger]

5. The list of anti-Democrat legislation being agreed to by the Democrat leaders grows by the hour.

[mainegreen]

6. What a crappy compromise.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

8. Why compromise by funding friggin' myths and fantasies?

Abstinence-only sex education is based upon myths and fantasies.

I'm so tired.

[hatrack]

9. "Compromise"?

WHAT compromise?

[robinlynne]

17. exactly.

[BrklynLib at work]

10. If that is compromise, what would total capitulation look like???

:puke:

[rudy23]

11. Democrats make up 65% of the country, and 10% of Congress

Campaign finance reform--NOW!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. This is f*cking insane! eom

[KamaAina]

13. Oh, so *that's* why we worked so hard to get a Dem majority in there!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[scorpiogirl]

14. WTF? What bullshit. Way to go dems!

As it stands, we can't use the money for SCHIP. However, we can add money to it for abstinence only education which is basically throwing money away. $200M a year for bullshit education trying to teach horny teen-agers not to have sex. I really don't have words for how little sense this makes. My head hurts.

[caligirl]

15. This was the subject of last weeks Boston Legal: aids anyone?