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Thursday, December 06, 2007

Clinging to their abstinence fantasy

The NY Times has an article today on the rising teen pregnancy rate ("Teenage Birth Rate Rises for First Time Since ’91"). The evidence is mounting that abstinence education may not only be stupid and ineffective, it may actually increase teen pregnancy (and STD transmission rates):
The federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates.
But the right-wingers are still clinging to their abstinence fantasy:
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said that blaming abstinence-only programs was “stupid.” Mr. Rector said that most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.
and
Mr. Rector of the Heritage Foundation said that teenage and unmarried birth rates were driven by the same factors: young women with little education who are devoted to mothering but see no great need to be married.

“We should be telling them that for the well-being of any child, it’s critically important that you be over the age of 20 and that you be married,” he said. “That message is not given at all.”

What, REALLY? Most teenage girls who get pregnant PLANNED IT because they are DEVOTED TO MOTHERING?! How exactly does one qualify to be a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, anyway? Because my deranged electric-cord chewing cat could really use a job.

Labels: abstinence, cwa, sexuality

posted by Mikhaela Reid at 9:00 AM

6 Comments:

Blogger Monster, Indeed! said...

Oh, brother, your Google ads are for "abortion alernatives" and "abstinence education!" I've seen this kind of stuff at left-wing blogs all the time. Are conservative blogs so unpopular that Google has to send their right-wing ads to places like this?

7:51 AM  
Blogger TJ said...

I understand how some of these people can be so out of touch. What I can't understand is why so many of these right-wingers fall all over each other to drink the kool-aid. Scary.

9:48 AM  
Blogger Mugsy said...

Your cat chews electric cords too? I thought my cat was unique. She's chewed through every skinny wire in the house, destroyed two phone cords and an answering machine, and how she survived gnawing on my 110v stereo power cord is anyone's guess. I've had to encase every computer cable in bulky plastic tubing (she acquired a taste the bad-tasting gel).

10:40 AM  
Blogger Mikhaela Reid said...

Yes, our apartment is a mass of disgusting thick black plastic cord-covering tubing. sigh.

4:40 PM  
Blogger Mikhaela Reid said...

oh no--there's nothing I can do about the ads. I have no control. sigh... it's just based on search terms, so Google does what it wants. there have even been Ann Coulter ads before.

5:08 PM  
Blogger TJ said...

Sorry, I thought this post was about the religious-right-wingnuts denying their own evidence that abstinence doesn't work and not about cord-chewing cats of which I am a proud owner, :-)
Too funny!!

7:44 PM  

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