Abstinence-Only Education: Virtually no support from the public, still receives funding

[ck4829]

For Christian conservatives, the pregnancy, at 16, of Nickelodeon actress Jamie Lynn Spears — the wholesome star of Zoey 101 and younger sister of troubled singer Britney Spears — poses a good news-bad news dilemma.

"We should commend girls like Jamie Lynn Spears for making a courageous decision to have the baby," summed up Bill Maier, vice president of the conservative ministry Focus on the Family. "On the other hand, there's nothing glamorous or fun about being an unwed teen mother."

No one would argue with that sentiment. For teens of lesser means, pregnancy takes away much more than fun and glamour. It greatly reduces chances that the young mother will ever escape poverty.

For all the agreement about the problem, however, a failure to recognize facts appears to be interfering with finding solutions. The Bush administration is sticking adamantly to abstinence-only sex education, which was adopted at the urging of religious conservatives, even as evidence mounts that such programs are failing.

The teen birth rate, which declined 34% from 1991 to 2005, increased 3% in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's too soon to say whether this is a blip or a trend, but at the grassroots level, states and school districts appear to be turning away from abstinence-only, presumably because of poor results. The Washington Post reported this month that 14 states had notified the federal government they would no longer be seeking money for abstinence-only programs.

Plenty of studies show that the best approach is a combination of sex education and abstinence counseling. And this year, an eight-year, government-funded study by the non-partisan Mathematica Policy Research Inc. concluded that there was no evidence abstinence-only programs reduced teen sexual activity. Yet the administration is in denial.

Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General from 2002 to 2006, has revealed that he was pressured to emphasize abstinence and ignore facts about sex education. Congress' non-partisan Government Accountability Office has found that most abstinence programs are not reviewed in a scientifically acceptable manner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20071226/cm_usatoday/insexedabstinenceonlylosessupportbutkeepsfunds

[Echo In Light]

1. Tax dollars for this, mass murder, and a host of other atrocities: Ain't our "democracy" neat-o?!

[BOSSHOG]

2. "Ignorance" a delightful christian conservative value

Yes, Mommy I'm still a virgin and I have no idea how I got pregnant. Are we going to church on Wednesday night Mommy? I wanna see the preachers son again.

[Echo In Light]

3. Pseudo "Christians," that is...

[BOSSHOG]

4. Roger that

Teammate. I forgot my Quotation Marks.

[Echo In Light]

6. LOL..sorry, not trying to impose beliefs, but there's big differences in shades of "Christianity"

[BOSSHOG]

10. Roger that

again teammate and a belated welcome to DU. Sadly there are many "shades" of christianity in this country and some of those shades are pretty scary. I tend to beat the "christians" up but I seriously believe "they" are domestic enemies of the constitution while trying to use the constitution as a weapon against their fellow citizens, all in the name of Jesus Christ and often in a tax exempt status. "They" sure are very protective of "their" constitutional liberties.

[goddess40]

7. In this case ignorance is a nice way to say stupid

I'm sorry but it's true - anyone that believes that abstinence only is an idiot. It's been tried through out history and proven that it doesn't work and to pretend that it does is idiotic.

[Echo In Light]

8. A masochistic penchant/offshoot of the authoritarian mindset?

[Arkansas Granny]

5. In my opinion, it is unreasonable to expect teens to refrain from

having sex until they are "ready" for marriage and procreation. I'm not advocating teen sex, but Mother Nature has equipped them for sexual activity long before society has determined that it's proper for them to do so. If you expect them to keep from having babies in their teens, you need to make sure they have the knowledge and the means to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

[BOSSHOG]

12. I recall

that by the time I reached the age of 12 I had gone blind at least three times. And, it was all God's fault.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. I seem to recall an old joke about a couple of little boys who

were afraid of of going blind and decided to stop when they needed glasses.

[formerrepuke]

9. "Abstinence-only" has worked quite well: Abstaining from talking about sex at all- just sweep

a controversial subject under the mat like it doesn't exist, and hopefully the kids won't find out about it.

[Echo In Light]

11. Sexuality is a gift from god ... however one chooses to interpret god n/t