It's Time for Sarah Palin, John McCain, and the GOP to Abstain From Abstinence-Only Education—It Doesn't Work
Sen. Barack Obama took the high road in refusing to answer reporters' questions about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's pregnant 17-year-old daughter Bristol and the girl's decision to marry the father and have the baby.
He also drew a distinct boundary line between legitimate topics for policy discussions by politicians and urged the media to leave politicians' families alone.
I respect his wishes, but Gov. Palin's family situation and how she was chosen by Sen. John McCain to join the Republican ticket still present issues worthy of debate among pundits if not politicians.
The first and most obvious is her support for abstinence-only education in public schools and how well it seems to have worked within her own family.
As a clarion-clear advocate of abstinence-only education, Palin explained on an Eagle Forum (ultraconservative women's group) questionnaire during her 2006 gubernatorial run: "The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."
Yet her teen daughter's premarital sex ought to act as a beacon to backers of abstinence-only supporters that abstinence-only education is, er, abortive. Nonetheless, Congress and the Bush and Clinton (yes, Clinton) administrations doled out 1.5 billion taxpayers dollars to states to teach high school students only about abstinence and nothing about biological sex education between 1996 and last July. Advocates for Youth, which supports comprehensive sex education for high school students, looked at five years of data from states that teach abstinence-only and reported the following:
- Three of six (abstinence-only) programs had no impact on sexual behavior (California, Maryland, and Missouri).
- Two of six programs reported increases in sexual behavior from pre- to post-test (Florida and Iowa). It was unclear whether the increases were due to youth's maturation or to a program's effect, as none of these evaluations included a comparison group.
For his part, Sen. McCain has voted to boost abstinence-only funding, to end federal family planning funding, and against teen pregnancy prevention programs. His running mate's family problems should send a laserlike message to McCain and other social conservatives they need to stop allowing their religious convictions to fog their thinking and they should start to rally around effective social policy, sex education included.
Tags: abortion | Republicans | sex education | birth control | abstinence | Sarah Palin
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Reader Comments
Absolutely right
This is absolutely right. There shouldnt be any of this nonsense
palin sex education
My liberal friend said that it was ok to talk about Palin's daughter because palin started the fight by opposing sex education in school and wanted it out of schools in alaska. After further investigation, I learned that her explanation of the issue was a bit of a stretch. I discovered the difference between comprehensive sex education and "abstinence only" sex education. I understand that many republicans believe that sex education is a family issue and should be handled by families. I understand that democrats think that we are in a crisis and that comprehensive sex education needs to be available in all schools (which means public funding).
We have sex education in our school system. I am not sure what kind. But I do know that my liberal friend has always been open about discussing sex with her children. She herself has had a child out of wedlock. In addition, she has two children who have had a child out of wedlock.
The message is simple. If you justify bringing up her family situation over and over again in the media simply because she opposed explicit sex education, then should my friend (who justified this media frenzy) be held accountable for her support of comprehensive sex education and frank open sexual discussions with her children if they, in fact, also had children out of wedlock.
Could we say she deserves scrutiny of her position?
I will not stoop to the level of my friend who is obviously wrong and has some issues when it comes to passing federal judgement on others without stopping to look in the mirror.
It is my opinion that teenage girls get pregnant with or without education, so why are we spending money on either position. Maybe the real problem is that we all work too hard and watch too much tv or spend too much time on these silly emails making a point to no one who is actually going to listen. Maybe we need to get back to spending more time with our kids.
We all need to stop using rediculous arguments so our "team" wins the election. It really impedes any progress and any attempt we all have at getting along.
Well, I have to get back to my kids now. I feel bad about spending too much time on this comment.
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