it just makes no sense
while this is appalling, it is not a surprise from Bush, Co. - a Dr. Erik Keroack as been appointed to the head of the Office of Family Planning. this is the office that has control over the hundreds of millions of dollars meant to provide contraception and reproductive health information - particularly to low-income Americans. Keroack is strictly abstinence only, and works at a "crisis pregnancy center" which diverts women looking for abortions, taking measures such as calling the police on them, contacting their parents, staking out their houses, and urging their peers to harrass them. this is an appointment, so there is no confirmation process or vote involved. the guy just goes into the position without recourse.
abstinence-only is the biggest load of bru-ha-ha that there is around. in fact, it appears that even in Bush's homestate of Texas, the programs have no effect, and may even have the opposite of the intended effect. there was also a study (which i cannot seem to find right now, if anyone has it) which shows that abstinence-only programs such as the pledges some high-schoolers take, and the classes, which give them no information on contraception are also having a terrible effect. yes, the kids wait about six month longer to have sex than their non-pledge-signing peers, but then once they do, they have starkly lower use of protection against STDs and pregnancy. they are also told that condoms do not work against AIDS, etc, etc.
i know most parents do not want their teenagers having sex. but let us face the fact that they are going to do so. it is doing them and our entire culture a disservice to let them enter into these things un- or mis-informed. your daughter or grandaughter is on myspace right now, at age 14, with a much wider understanding and experience than you are willing to admit to yourself. would you rather her be fully-informed and on contraceptives, or her coming to you, pregnant, or even worse, with AIDS? seriously. you want abortion to stop? as they say.... an ounce of prevention.
full-disclosure, i say. we do not let our children ride in a car without their seatbelts on - why even take a chance on them taking their lives in their hands in another, much more likely way than getting into a traffic accident? oh, yeah, that is right, let's just hand them a gun with no safety mechanism, that sounds lovely.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 8:04 am and is filed under Family, Journal, Motherhood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
