Does anyone think Abstinence-only education really works? Anyone?

[rd_kent]

It would seem that this (IMO) complete waste of time and money is on its last legs. Anyone think we should keep it or that it actually works? And Why?



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/26/AR2009122600762.html?hpid=topnews

Abstinence proponents look for aid from new health bill


Proponents of sex education classes that focus on encouraging teenagers to remain virgins until marriage are hoping that the rescue plan for the nation's health-care system will also save their programs, which are facing extinction because of a cutoff of federal funding.

The health-care reform legislation pending in the Senate includes $50 million for programs that states could use to try to reduce pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease among adolescents by teaching to them to delay when they start having sex.

[leftofcool]

1. Sure it does

Just tell your kids not to fuck and they won't <sarcasm>

[RainDog]

2. govt funding for religious bullshit has to stop

I cannot believe this nation funds anti-science.

this is the same nation that worked to put a man on the moon - and how we work to put stupidity in policy via religious slush funds.

I have had it with this payola for religious idiocy.

[rd_kent]

6. Agreed 100%. Religion and religious ideology have NO place in the public arena.

[jmowreader]

17. Speaking of the Man on the Moon thing...

In the 1950s the United States entered the Space Race. We orbited seven of our bravest young men in the Mercury Program. We then flew 20 men in Project Gemini, and landed men on the moon in the Apollo Program.

Everyone knows what happened after that: Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, and finally the Space Shuttle program that continues today. The technology developed for this endeavor has improved all our lives. Whether it's the computer you post to DU on, the satellite that brings you Fox News (gotta have something to complain about, right?) or those horrific freeze-dried potatoes, not a day goes by when something created for or improved by the space program doesn't touch your life.

If we would have had fundies and teabaggers in 1951, none of this would have happened--they would have made it so abundantly clear that a rocket might accidentally hit God and cause him to bring his wrath down on Earth, that we'd never have launched a rocket in the first place.

[Christa]

3. Apart from Sarah Palin?

:rofl:

[cmkramer]

12. Sarah Palin doesn't believe in abstinence only

She believes in birth control. The abstinence only thing was just one of the many lies that were told about her during the campaign.

[Christa]

31. I was kidding. nt

[jmowreader]

37. Sarah Palin believes in AO for your kids

She knows how well it works for her own.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. It works exactly as planned: get young women pregnant early and often. nt.

[dkf]

5. With abstinence education you get virgins or pregnancies

Only extreme results.

[juno jones]

7. This is why the proposed community clinics MUST

be kept out of the hands of the religious 'faith-based' nuts.

The last thing the poor need are clinics that don't offer complete services for women (who take the brunt of birth control descisions) because some ass somewhere doesn't want to give out BC and would rather tell unmarried women that they are bad girls if they have sex.

[Stevenmarc]

8. It works till it doesn't

[rd_kent]

13. No, it doesnt wortk at all.

Unless the purpose is to under-inform the young about real life......

[Posteritatis]

24. To be fair, that *is* the purpose. (nt)

[rd_kent]

25. Ahh, well then, I guess it does work.

[Yupster]

15. Very good answer

"It works till it doesn't."

Same as abstinence only drug education, smoking education, or education not to murder people or steal things.

It seems we did pretty well on the anti-smoking campaign over the last 20 years. What techniques did we use to reduce teenage smioking? Maybe we can use the same ideas for reducing teens having sex.

[Warpy]

9. We have hard data showing the abstinence program did not work

and in fact was counterproductive because kids who lacked the basic knowledge of how to protect themselves and their partners tended to practice much riskier sex than kids who got that knowledge.

Continuing to fund a program that has been such a spectacular failure just because a bunch of men have gotten rich off it is pure insanity.

Let's hope somebody in power displays a little common sense on this one.

[rd_kent]

14. +100000

[RainDog]

16. This is what is so infuriating. we KNOW this program is bullshit.

a pander to the people who pray to the golden calf of ignorance for the people.

and yet they are lauded, not dismissed as quacks.

it's time for this nation to have a clear-headed spokesperson for sanity over religion. I thought Obama would be that sort of person. He has the education. He knows the truth. but he's playing politics with the religious fucktards of this nation.

that's a dangerous game and it needs to stop.

democrats need to be the party of innovation, not capitulation to foaming-at-the-mouth stupidity of literalists and worshippers of patriarchal bullshit.

[jmowreader]

10. Yup. Works fine.

Y'all just don't realize the REAL reason for abstinence-only sex ed: They want to keep girls innocent of any knowledge of what sex is supposed to be like. This way, when girls actually DO have sex, for the first time on their wedding nights, they won't realize just how inept Fundamentalist men are at fuckin'.

"No, Mary, I don't have the tiniest dick in history. All men's penises are four inches long when erect."
'But I saw a picture of a naked man in my friend Julie's Playgirl Magazine. He had a penis that was at least seven inches long.'
"Honey. Come on. You've heard of Photoshop, haven't you?"

[TXbug]

11. Palin does

Palin believes in abstinence. Her daughter does not.

[cmkramer]

19. No she doesn't

Again, it was one of the many lies that got told about her during the campaign.

Now, I'm pretty sure that she considers abstinence to be the best way to avoid pregnancy but she is not against birth control.

[SanddancerUSA]

18. Apparently taking it up the pooper is not sex.

Nor is feeding at the honey pot or smoking the beef pipe.

[SoCalDem]

20. perhaps... for timid non-dating teens

but it may make for some mixed up young adults, who fall prey to college romances they are ill-prepared for:(

[libodem]

21. Not only NO

but HELL NO!

[Arkansas Granny]

22. I have no problem with abstinence being included as part of a comprehensive

sex ed program that also teaches various methods of birth control, disease prevention, and personal responsibility, but it should certainly not be the only alternative that is taught. Teenagers need and deserve to have all the information available to help them make these important choices that they will be faced with.

[bluestateguy]

23. This is a repost of a thread I started recently

The meme that we hear from the abstinence only sex ed crowd is that kids should wait until marriage to do it. And certainly any parent is going to be anxious about their high school or junior high school aged son or daughter having sex; such behavior should certainly not be encouraged, and young people need to be made to understand the consequences of their actions.

But here is what I find disturbing about abstinence only sex ed. They say that you should wait until marriage, that sex is more special and meaningful when you are in a marital relationship. That your virginity is something that should only be given to your spouse on your wedding night. That's a nice little fairly tale, and if you have the self-discipline to pull that off, good for you. But we as Americans are getting married later and later in life; some people don't get married until their are in their early to mid-30's. That may be because you have people who want to be financially secure before making such a commitment, and that takes a long time these days, or maybe they go through a series of bad relationships before finding the right person, or in some cases (and I have friends in this category) you have people who are shy and socially awkward and it can take them many, many years to either find someone, or develop the self confidence needed to dive into the dating game.

So are these people supposed to wait until they are 34 years old to have sex if that's how long it takes them to get married? That's the message that seems to be coming from the abstinence only crowd, and it's insulting. You're asking people to sacrifice their entire young adulthood to abstinence if they are not lucky enough to find their future spouse until they are in their mid-30's. And let's face it, a lot of finding a husband or wife is just pure luck, being in the right place at the right time.

Not only are the abstinence only people being unrealistic, but they are also demanding that a good portion of Americans remain sexually frustrated well into adulthood. That can't be healthy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6746304

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. About as successful as the Churrch saying it's filthy and dirty.

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock

[frebrd]

27. It probably increases the Fundie birth rate. eom

[WhiteTara]

28. well, yes. It works to increase the human

population!

[TexasObserver]

29. What do you call teenage girls who practice abstinence only?

Mothers.

It doesn't work. It only satisfies the parents' need for a belief their daughter is not active.

[Odin2005]

30. Anyone who thinks they can keep teens from fucking is INSANE.

It's that simple.

[Dr. Strange]

32. Probably about as well as mathematics education.

(Judging by the growth of remedial programs at the college level.)

[RainDog]

33. ...

[Dr. Strange]

42. Stop that! Right now!

Actually, that comic does appear in several abstinence-only educational textbooks.

[treestar]

34. Probably not

Scare tactics might work. Or maybe not.

For drugs, they used scare tactics, when I was in high school. They'd show films about overdoses and the horrors of bad things that can happen.

With AIDS and other STDs and pregnancy - they do use that tactic where they have to take care of a doll to show them how much a baby will take.

[varelse]

35. Of course it works quite well

at increasing the birth rate among adolescent girls, keeping another generation of women poor, ignorant, and powerless. When gauging the success of a policy, it's best to know the goal of the policy backers.

[Hello_Kitty]

36. Well fuck, why nut give money to the fundies? We gave them all kinds of influence over this bill.

Stupak, Nelson, conferring with Catholic Bishops, etc.

[Nikki Stone1]

38. It has been proven entirely ineffective

Not a big surprise there. Unless you're on the payroll of one of these programs.

[sakabatou]

39. It works... for a short amount of time

Otherwise, they make it up with other ways....

[WeDidIt]

40. I think it's important to stress the value of abstinence in good sex education

Abstinence is the only 100% certain way to insure there will not be a pregnancy or STDs.

That said, any sex education course MUST teach about contraceptive methods and methods to counter the spread of STDs, or else it's irresponsible on its face.

[surrealAmerican]

41. That's the wrong question.

There are people who "think it works", but those are people who ignore actual data which prove it not only doesn't work, but is actually counter-productive if you are interested in reducing sexually transmitted diseases or teen pregnancies.

Opinion polls are NOT a method to determine the effectiveness of such programs.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

43. Yeah, Sarah Palin