Abstinence, Purity Balls, and Bush's ugly legacy

[ChairmanAgnostic]

For those who were asleep over the last decade, Purity Balls are a christian creation in which fathers and daughters celebrate virginity. The dad actually gets control over his daughter's sexuality, and will decide who will have the right to take away her blessed, christian virginity. As sick as this sounds, this phenomena was growing quite popular throughout the Bush years. To add fuel to the fodder, the Federal Government, through its abstinence policies, actually underwrote some of these balls, particularly in Colorado, Arizona, and South Carolina.

The Christian Right was not satisfied with this. They compounded the damage done to America's youth by defunding sex education (The Bible says all we need to know) and by promoting abstinence only programs. The results?

Horrific is one word. Dismaying is another. Predictable is yet a third. Together, these words describe the state of our union, in terms of sexuality, health, and unwanted pregnancies. As of 2008, the US had the HIGHEST RATE of teenaged, unwanted, single mother pregnancies in the developed world. 55.6 pregnancies per 1000 girls. Spain had 7.5, and those hot Italian lovers, with their very own Vatican City in their midst, had only 6.5. Even the Czech Republic and Slovakia had less than half our rate, and to add insult to injury, their abortion rates were 1/3 of ours.

Worst of all, those attending the Purity Balls suffered the most. Their rates of pregnancies and STD transmission have rising the fastest. Great work, dads!

Americans spent $1.5 BILLION dollars on abstinence only education. To what end? The highest global rates of unwanted pregnancies. The highest incidence of unprotected anal sex among teens, and now?
- - -
"RALEIGH, N.C. _ As health departments battle the H1N1 flu virus, North Carolina health workers worry that another epidemic may be brewing - one for a sexually transmitted disease that had almost disappeared from the state 10 years ago. Cases of syphilis in the state have nearly doubled in the past year: 684 in the first nine months, compared to 359 cases for the same period a year earlier."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/79284.html
- - -

That's right. After decades of proper sex education, and falling STD rates across the nation, STD rates have doubled. Thanks for nothing, Mr. Bush

So what did our Democratic controlled congress do with Bush's Abstinence policy? Well, after President Obama cut TItle V funding for abstinence only education, our Democratic leaders TRIED TO PUT IT BACK IN THE BUDGET!

Luckily, that effort failed.

Newsweek recently reported,

"In the beginning, the public-health community was open to the programs. The United States did, after all, have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. "There was open-mindedness then, that it might work" says John Santelli, of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "Everyone is willing to give new ideas a trial period." By 1999, one study estimated a third of American students were receiving an abstinence-only education. But as funding grew, so did a body of research showing that abstinence didn't change the sexual behaviors of students; pregnancy and STD rates did not go down, the age of initial sexual activity did not go up. "Each evaluation came along ... and each showed it didn't work," says Santelli. The articles appeared in peer-reviewed journals, many in the Journal of Adolescent Health, and in government-commissioned reviews. In 2007, a federally funded study of four abstinence programs found its students no more likely to abstain than those in a comprehensive program."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/219818


Teen pregnancies at an all time high. STDs doubling. This is the legacy of a faith based presidency.

[panader0]

1. Something about the term 'purity balls'

doesn't sit well with me.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. methinks the teabaggers have something to do with that.

[Therellas]

8. bwahahaha.

self righteous white trash.
gotta hate'em

[Turbineguy]

3. In the Republican world

when your policy fails, you simply add more of it.

Theoretically it's possible to put out a fire with gasoline. But normal people would use a fire extinguisher.

[Ikonoklast]

4. The religiously insane are against government intervention in private matters.

Unless, of course, it has anything to do with sex, then they are all for taking public money and telling everyone else how to live their lives.

And do it all badly.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. making matters worse.

After the great gains of the 90s, Bush had to happen.

and he promoted the same shit over in Africa. I am convinced that his religion-based health care promotion there has caused the increase in gay and witch bashing there.

[Warpy]

6. Churches have been doing abstinence education

for two thousand years and it's never worked for them.

I have no clue why public health departments thought it would work in the schools.

It's been a proven failure for two millennia. I think that's been a long enough trial to prove once and for all that trying to scare teenagers away from a basic biological drive is a stupid idea and will never work.

We should be teaching them how to stay safe, instead.

[Bitwit1234]

7. Wonder why bush didn't practice what he preached.

Have you read the story about Margie Schonlinger (think that is how you spell her name).. and how about the call girl, who got pregnant by bush and he paid for an abortion. Which at that time was illegal.

Those republicans. Do what I tell you to do. And let me do as I WANT.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. we sure see a lot of that, even now.

Ensign . . . boy, I am losing count.