Abstinence Only Programs Have Failed

[Dachshund]

The Bush Administration released it's findings on the abstinence only program on Friday the thirteenth. They like to release bad news on a Friday afternoon to avoid the news cycle and hope no one will notice. I doubt you will be surprised by their findings...I know...I know it was all Clinton's fault...


http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/13/abstinence-only-programs-have-failed/trackback/

[bear60]

I heard that on NPR yesterday.....the reporter said that instead of accepting that abstinance education does not work.......the governments response is to say that MORE abstinance education is needed.  I didnt read the article.  This kind of explains why its impossible to argue for condom education tho, seems to me.

[Teresa]

Not suprised at all. Wish they would push the use of condoms as much as they pushed the abstinence nonsense.

Teresa

[Central79]

Not surprised. The Bush administration's continued denial of fundamental human behaviour is the reason the US has the highest prevalance of HIV in the developed world.

I understand that in some states, giving proper sex ed is regarded as "encouragement".

It scares me the stranglehold the religious right seems to have on American politics. This and evolution both make the US look very bad.

It's happening over here too - gradually more and more right-wing Christian crap is making it's way into the political scene. I received an e-mail (from inside UCL, the UK's first secular university) the other day taking me to a YouTube video that puported to show what would happen in schools if a Bill giving space to homosexuality within a comprehensive sex ed programme. Picture weird diagrams and children crying. It's been pulled now, and I reported the e-mailer to my uni. Sorry for the hijack, just thought it was worth a mention.

[aupointillimite]

I heard that on NPR yesterday.....the reporter said that instead of accepting that abstinance education does not work.......the governments response is to say that MORE abstinance education is needed. 

You know... I'm glad that life has taught me if what I'm doing isn't working... to do it some more and with greater vigor.

Makes perfect sense.

[Miss Philicia]

wake me when this is all over in a couple more years

[aupointillimite]

wake me when this is all over in a couple more years

Alarm clock set for 20 Jan 2009?

[Miss Philicia]

Pretty much.  But I suppose in this particular case Dems can cut off funding for some of these programs.  I'd read of rumblings about doing this already in the past couple of weeks, so this report will hopefully only speed that up.

[jack]

its hopeless. what are you gonna do? If people are too fucking stupid to wear a rubber or in my case,just dont wanna wear one, what do you propose we do? Throw more money at the problem . Have buckets of rubbers at the door in every school and restaurant, paid for by the taxpayer of course. Because not only are people too stupid to use rubbers,and some dont wanna use rubbers, they dont wanna pay for them.
Again,anyone in the US who doesnt know how you get HIV is a fucking moron or hasnt been listening.
Anyone who has sex with anyone and doesnt use a rubber and gets HIV, tough shit, and that includes me.
You all want the government involved in your sex lives but only on your own terms? Why should they listen to us? We are so fucking out of control or stupid we got this virus? I give them credit for thinking there was a chance for humans not to think with their dicks. So since we humans are no different than animals and have no control over our sexual desires or compulsions, fuck it all.
I give them credit for thinking we were different than my fucking dog.
I get like this on weekends when the sun doesnt shine and I cant drink whiskey.

[Dachshund]

Pandering to and paying off the religious right is the reason for this policy...can you say, "faith based initiative?"

I thought this would make you happy...a guaranteed return on your pharma stock.

[bear60]

its hopeless. what are you gonna do? If people are too fucking stupid to wear a rubber or in my case,just dont wanna wear one, what do you propose we do? Throw more money at the problem . Have buckets of rubbers at the door in every school and restaurant, paid for by the taxpayer of course. Because not only are people too stupid to use rubbers,and some dont wanna use rubbers, they dont wanna pay for them. Quote Jack
...................................................
Liberals: Teach kids where babies come from....the truth.
Conservatives: Leave it up to the parents...who are provbably more stupid than the kids.
Liberals: Teach condom use.
Conservatives: Teach abstinence...to those who cant even spell it.

[DingoBoi]

solution:  encourage hiv infection so the entire world gets infected.  Bust the patents on all aids drugs and sell them like aspirin.

Give the world aids.   

[StrongGuy]

Pandering to and paying off the religious right is the reason for this policy...can you say, "faith based initiative?"

That sums up the whole policy.

Mike

[Ann]

In the Netherlands, they start sex education right when the kids start school. They start out talking about human relationships and progress in complexity and content as the kids grow up. Sex education is just a fact of life there and classes of thirteen year olds listen to the lessons instead of being distracted by embarrassed giggling and adolescent joke-telling from the back row. To them, it's just another class, like history or algebra.

The end result is that the Netherlands has one of the lowest rates of teenage pregnancy and STIs in the world. It wasn't always so - in the late 70's they were in the top of the charts. They decided to do something about it and they've done a wonderful job. If only the rest of us could follow suit.

Here in the UK, the problem isn't so much Abstinence Only programs, it's a sheer and utter lack of education, period. Most kids only get one or two lessons in their whole school career and that is focused on biology with little or no mention of how that biology translates into healthy life-choices.

The Dutch have it cracked and I tip my hat to them.

Ann

[J.R.E.]

 ,


Too bad Barbara and George senior didn't abstain.



Ray

[Dragonette]

And now even on Yahoo...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/ap_on_re_us/teen_sex

[allopathicholistic]

Too bad Barbara and George senior didn't abstain.

u gotta prob with junior & jeb?!? them boys are my kids okay?     j/k

And now even on Yahoo...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071107/ap_on_re_us/teen_sex

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies

shocker! j/k thanks for the link sweety

[marc11864]

Say it isn't so! I put so much into the whole campaign believing that it would be our salvation.

Oh the humanity!!! Where will it all end? 

[sdcabincrew74]

Of course they failed.  The drive for sex is innate and cannot be stopped.  We are driven by the VERY core of our being to have sex.  So, of course, things have failed!