James Dobson’s Focus on the Family issued an alert to its membership yesterday with a banner headline: “Liberals Want Federal Abstinence Education Cut.” To which I thought, “It’s about time.” From the religious right group’s report:
President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal includes $204 million to support Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE), but dozens of liberals in Congress want all abstinence money axed from the budget.
Seventy-six representatives — all abortion supporters — have signed a letter sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., asking the House Appropriations Committee to cut all abstinence-education funding. The letter follows another letter, sent by Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., urging support for CBAE funding and current guidelines.
The debate surfaces on the heels of a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows one in four teen girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
I was especially struck by the notion that the timing of the CDC report was somehow helpful to the right’s efforts to promote abstinence-only funding. If anything, the opposite is true — as the rates of sexually-transmitted diseases go up, it’s all the more important to offer quality education on sexual health.
It’s quite simple: the evidence that abstinence-only is more effective doesn’t exist.
ABC News had this report last night:
The political and ethical debate over what to teach teenagers about sex is being reinvigorated after a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Now some say the study, the first of its kind, reveals why it’s so important to teach teens not to have sex at all; others argue that the study proves that federally funded abstinence-only education isn’t working.
Stoking the fire, a study published in the April edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health found that those who received comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received abstinence-only education. The study also found that those who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received no sex education at all.
“I do think that there’s strong evidence that comprehensive sex education is more effective at preventing teen pregnancies,” said Pamela Kohler, lead author of the study and program manager at the University of Washington’s Center for AIDS and STD. “I think we pretty much debunked the myth that comprehensive sex education causes teenagers to have sex.”
Thus far, it appears conservative groups have missed the memo. For that matter, as I understand it, House Republicans and Bush administration officials are prepared to fight to keep the funding for ineffective programs in place.
One wonders just how many more studies it will take.
No Trackbacks To “Putting abstinence-only funding on the chopping block“
You’re missing the point, Steve.
If all sex education is abstinence-only, only non-abstainers will contract STIs.
It’s a feature, not a bug.
I’m sure Bush will use the “saved” money in Iraq.
Translation:
“We want our kids to be idiots, but not f*cking idiots.”
As Stephen Colbert memorably observed, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Dobson and his extremist followers should boycott all reich-wing politicians in protest.
All of us were teenagers at one point in our lives. And all of us know how we responded when our parents told us NOT to do something, without telling us WHY we shouldn’t do it.
That’s what this abstinance program does - tells kids not to do something without educating them as to WHY they shouldn’t.
We always challenged our parents, just to see if they knew what the hell they were talking about. In my case, I got tired of my mother always being right.
Use that funding to rebuild New Orleans and allow Katrina victims to come home. No matter how well Bush responds to other disasters, they will always be compared to Katrina and he will always come out like the loser he is.
god spoke to Dobson, and said go forth, and spread the alarm. The sheep are wandering, and need to be saved from the evil dems.
I believe you mean, the evidence that abstinence-only is at all effective doesn’t exist.
Obviously, the way to end both STD’s and rampant immorality is to convince women to save themselves for in vitro fertilization.
One can only hope that Dobson and his followers meet the same fate - put aside in the dust bin.
Also be a Cold Day in Hell before the Vatican revokes it’s Condom Ban.
I wish these people would abstain from killing with the same zeal they abstain from fucking.
I remember being a teenager and the fastest way to get me to do something was to tell me not to do it.
Seems to me it’s just about a crime not to teach kids how to protect themselves. This goes for a whole lot of things and especially sex. Kids are going to experiment with sex. I bet we all did. They need to know the dangers and possible outcomes of that experimentation. Their health could be at risk as well as their future. Any parent who refuses to educate their kids about such things is putting their child at risk. If the parent can’t bring themselves to talk with their kids there should be other education available.
Is GWB a sexually transmitted disease?
Maybe the rate of STD infection in some teens is due to the “fact” that oral and anal sex aren’t really sex”.
Maybe more wingers should have been abstinent in the past — we’d have that many less nutjobs ruining this country.
Money! Money! Money! is all this con-man is worried about.
Not being able to get his hands on a piece of that $204 million pie.
They don’t want to educate about sex but if a girl does get pregnant, they don’t want her to get an abortion. Hell, being the daughter of one of these people is a damned challenge.
Since when does evidence enter in to the equation? We’re talkin’ “the Bush Administration”, remember?
Sheese!
pissed off patricia @ 17:
Agreed. And once this child is born, they could give a shit if he or she lies or dies.
Damn.Should be lives or dies.
pissed off patricia @ 17:
That’s because the whole conservative Christian philosophy is punitive. If you do something they deem wrong, they want you punished for it. So if you get pregnant out of wedlock, they think you should be forced to carry the baby to term. If you have sex out of wedlock with someone who has an STD, you should contract the STD and be forced to deal with the consequences, sometimes for the rest of your life — which could in fact be shortened because of the STD. I have never understood how this philosophy squares with the Christian concept of forgiveness.
Why does this sick child-abuse advocate get any press?
As a fiscal conservative, a social progressive, and a believer in God/Allah/YHWH who’s all too familiar with the hypocrisy of the Religious Right, I say - GO LIBERALS!!
$204 million. That’s what, 70 cents for every American individual, spend on pushing a failed ideology that’s purely faith-based? Not only wasteful spending, but unconstitutional.
Of course it’s also a far cry from the hundreds of billions (and more importantly, thousands of lives) being wasted in Iraq. That whole thing is also faith-based… and it’s a creepy faith indeed.
deebee @ 14:
No, he’s a parasite.
I REALLY wish Mr. Dobson would teach abstinence only FOREVER to his children and any zombie willing to listen to him. The problem would take care of itself.
Odd ain’t it?
Why are most pro-lifers are against universal healthcare?
That whole funding for abstinence only programs is a waste and I hope it does get cut. It is, and always has been a futile effort to fight human nature and this latest CDC report is a clear indication of that. Chastity belts and other methods of control used in the past have all failed.
“James”, the Voice said, “educate those misguided democrats who want peace, prosperity and the persuit of happiness… or I’ll destroy the World and you’ll have to pay taxes, sell your limo and castle and Rolex and live like a peasant”.
Too bad children of reich-wingers didn’t stay abstinent forever.
I don’t have anything against teaching abstinence as part of a greater, comprehensive sex education. I want my daughter to be abstinent but I know in the real world, that aint gonna happen. Women like her need all the info they get to make the proper choices.
Anais @ 21:
On the other hand, if THEY violate any of their own rules, a week at jeebus camp and a declaration that they’ve been cured/forgiven for their sins and everything is hunky dory.
How many daughters and mistresses of wealthy xian death cultists do you suppose have had abortions in the past 10 years? I’ll bet it’s way more than the number of adoptions of unwanted babies by the same group.
Are the leaders of the pro-life movement lying or stupid?
These people bitch and moan about the tragedy of all those “babies” being “murdered,” but when it comes to preventing abortions, they splurge their funds on pushing for bills that deny oral contraceptives to be covered under medical insurance and force their abstinence-only “education” down the throats of our kids instead of conprehensive sex ed that shows them how to protect themselves, things that would PREVENT pregnancies and thus produce a drop in abortion rates. Are they just trying to kill babies, and then passing laws to make it illegal so it looks like it’s not their fault?
By the way, I’ve seen footage of abstinence-only classes, and it’s not pretty. It’s ugly, like, dumb-bitch-without-any-credentials-talking-about-hypothetical-scenarios-without-interjecting-any-scientific-or-medical-facts ugly. THEY call it education; I call it sub-par story time.
Funny how this story comes up regarding Abstinence Education. This without complete teaching of sexual education–condoms, birth control, etc.–is going to hurt women especially. Men will act as if there is no problem until they are struck with STDs too.
What is not telling are how many who are following abstinence only teach are the ones who tend to fail and find themselves in a worst situation then before. Our teens are asked to put their lives on the line for our country and given the responsibility to drive and drink. Why not give them the education and information needed to have them make informed choices.
If not this year, then next year these things need to be struck down…immediately.
redestructionist @ 12:
It seems to me, on average, that the more often one has good sexual intercourse, the less grouchy and prone to violence/murder the person is.
Maybe the best way to commit civil disobediance is to have a National F**k-Off at The Mall in D.C. On a warm day, of course…the cops might trade in their tazers for vibrators. “All right men, the sooner these activists come, the sooner they’ll leave…get to it!”
This message is brought to you by Viagra.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 24:
He should have been a blowjob…
$204,000,000 = almost 7 hours of war.
They don’t support abortion, they support the women’s right to make the decision to abort or not. Noone is walking around with a “GET AN ABORTION” sign or wearing buttons saying “ABORTION ROCKS!!”.
The problem with the religious right’s sex program, is that so many of their young girls take away from it that it’s perfectly ok for them to take it up the ass and take a shot in the mouth, because they’ll still be “virgins”. STD’s don’t care what hole it goes in.
Verdillac @ 35:
LOL!
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 38:
The biggest crime George H.W. Bush has ever commited, is not maintaining the trend of “pulling out” in the face of danger, like he did when he ditched his aircraft in the Pacific.
I always believe a tiny part of this is a warped jealousy:
I ain’t gettin’ any, so you shouldn’t either….
Without proper instruction, it’s like playing with Loaded Guns!
If only his parents had abstained.
Yes. People like Dobson know that these “culture wars” are what keeps their movement alive. Without something to complain about, these flat-earthers are completely irrelevant.
Therefore, they support non-functional government programs like “Abstinence Education” in the hopes that abortions will continue (in large numbers).
I’ve always found it odd that right-wingers complain so much about abortion, when they are the ones who so often seek to exploit it. “Abstinence Education” makes their scheming more transparent than it ever was before.
Acting Patriotic @ 41:
The results can be every bit as tragic if they accidentally go off….
Yellow Elephant Safari (Hussein) @ 30:
They are not “Christians” in the traditional sense. They throw Jesus’ name all over the place to justify their behavior, but the fact is that these people are “Old Testament” “wrath of God” evangelicals.
Here is another point. If that CDC report is correct, then people like Dobson who do not want sexual education taught may be contributing to the start of an STD epidemic which could very well spread to the same future babies that Dobson and those like him always claim to be protecting.
Joe O. @ 46:
No, those children will be “born of Sin” and deserve their misery, and “unworthy”.
Putting abstinence-only funding on the chopping block
OUCH!
That just makes me want to cross my legs.
I guess this era will be known as the Gelded Age.
I have had to come to the conclusion along time ago that a huge portion of the American people want to be lied to. Deep down they know it’s BS but it feels better than the real truth. It happens on a variety of issues like Iraq they would rather hear that we can win (what ever that means to them) than the real truth that sooner or later we will have to leave with out a win. People would rather pretend that if you don’t tell children how to have safe sex they will not have sex at all. That if you talk about safe sex at all it is somehow promoting it. I find it depressing.
Another example of religion’s absurdity. As if there aren’t enough examples alre