I realize you don't come to a sex site to read blogs about politics.  I just can't refuse to seize the moment when it comes to abstinence-only sex education!  There is no way to miss the headlines about Vice Presidential candiate, Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter.  This is her 17-year old unmarried pregnant daughter who was taught all about sex in an abstinence-only model supported by Palin herself!  Sarah Palin may be able to "field dress a moose" but like most mothers, she can't stop her 17 year-old from having sex even with abstinence only values!

Can I just say "We told you so!" and get it out of the way!

The Republicans do not have policies that support health, abortion, HIV/AIDS and sexuality research to the extent I think they should.  Despite this I won't glam onto to the media abuse of this child to further my political interests.  What I will do is glam onto it to further my interests in sex education and what young people deserve to learn.

Over $1.5 billion dollars has been spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for the last 25 years.  Current research data from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy shows that 1 out of every two pregnancies were unplanned which totaled over 3 million in the year 2001.  Evidence bases research has shown for years abstinence-only programs are not effective, yet the Republican policies of the last eight years have continued to force this.  To the point institutions, research organizations and the like lost funding for not adhering to the stringent approach. 

In early 2007 an evaluation of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs was released.  There were more than 700 programs funded by the Title V monies and four were handpicked to show its effectiveness.  The results showed otherwise!  Once again hard core data proved the programs and this approach is ineffective.  We don't need a national media frenzy of Sarah Palin's daughter to know this is true! It's actually a dream come true for someone like me!

$1.5 billion dollars and 700+ programs later we have the following conclusive information:

• abstinence-only-until-marriage programs does not increase the rate of abstinence
• students in the programs has similar age of first sex and number of sex partners as students not in the program
• the average age of sexual debut 14.9 years was the same in the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs as those not in the program
• the programs did not effect behaviors related to vaginal sex, number of partner or condom use
• the rates of pregnancy and STD's was uneffected for students in the program
• recent declines in teen pregnancy are associated with improved use of contraception not increased rates of abstinence

I could have told you all this for $5.  People are not going to stop having sex, especially teenagers!  With today's media and music influence they are certainly not going to push out the age of "first sexual debut"!  Of course they will be younger the first time they have sex. Even without the media our openness as a society has grown enormous leaps from the Puritan and Victorian eras when sex was forbidden!  Just try to image Teddy Roosevelt doing for oral sex what Bill Clinton did!  Now FDR had his own scandals, but you get the idea.  We have declining religious values and decreased participation in young people and now they can't even say prayers in school.  Did you think they would wait unitl marriage or have fewer parnters?

No, what we have is a culture where pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry and it's not like they teach young boys how to put on a condom.  Running a train on a porn star or group orgies of eight aren't teaching kids to be discretionary and have fewer partners.  Instead we pretend our young boys aren't getting into their father's stash of porn, surfing the net looking at naked girls or watching thier uncles video with a bunch of friends and the uncle! 

The girls usually aren't exposed to the porn the same way as boys, but they are the ones with the key to the lock box.  In a society where sex sells everything, being a size 0 means you'll be loved and teenage pregnancy is the norm what is to stop them from saying yes?  Just look at Hollywood - Jamie Lynn Spears is the role model!  It's not like they can go get contraception becuase our laws don't allow it at certain ages.  Fortunately they still have a choice when it comes to abortion.  Under a McCain/Palin platform woman are likely to lose that choice.  These candidates have said they will attempt to overturn Roe vs. Wade.  Now women who were born to choice risk losing this and most don't even realize it.  So why don't we just do a better job at preventing unplanned preganancy with ALL the information, not just abstinence?

Take a look at the big picture and you'll see something is off kilter.  Our sex drive starts in the womb and doesn't end until we die.  People will have sex.  Isn't it better to teach them their options, empower them to make better choices and support these choices?  Isn't it my right to have a choice what to do with my body?  Who said it was your choice or the choice of a President who selects like minded Supreme Court Justices?  Don't I have a right to learn in a public education system what our marvelous science and medical people discover?

We could do a lot of good with $1.5 billion dollars.  We could give out free condoms and not only prevent pregnancy but a disease that might kill you!  We could support girls just like Bristol Palin to continue their high school education when they choose to have a baby.  Maybe just maybe if we didn't resist one of the strongest biological drives we'd have better results.

It's exactly as they say - what you resist persists.  Sex isn't going anywhere.  Especially in a teenager with raging hormones.  Why not work with this instead of against it?  Let's teach them what to do when they really just want to get to 4th base!  Let's get really radical and teach them that masturbation is a safe and healthy alternative!

Let's just own it and say OK, every one has the urge and desire to have sex!  What this looks like at every age varies as do the consequences and risks.  So let's educate everyone about exactly that and support it with solid family values, religious values and a society that is on the same page.  Information is knowledge and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs discriminate the type of information being taught, which we all know is unconstitutional!  I guess it's just another item to add to a long laundry list for the last two presidential terms...

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