If parents don’t do their job, there’s not much to fill the gap. From a public standpoint, abstinence only programs do not provide all of the information and facts necessary, and if the parents are doing their jobs, you end up with this mess.
Through the 1990’s schools were providing the entire picture and the teen pregnancy and STD rates were in decline. Since 2001, the emphasis shifted to abstinence only and the rates are going up. There would definitely seem to be a correlation.
]]>Done that. Did contract work for Planned Parenthood 20 years ago; no cyberspace involved. You are still either lying or ignorant about condoms, Bernadette, and no amount of pontificating on your part will change that fact. Pitch all the insults you want… unintentionally or (I suspect) intentionally, you are factually incorrect here. And it has the potential to harm all those teens you come into contact with. I don’t care what religion you belong to: nothing gives you the right to lie to those teens. They deserve the facts… the ones that come out of scientific research… the ones that can actually protect them from HIV. Abstinence is a nice fantasy, but those who fail in its pursuit do not deserve the hell you condemn them to. “Judge not…”
]]>Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing heterosexual sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Research on the effectiveness of latex condoms in preventing heterosexual transmission is both comprehensive and conclusive.
I was in law enforcement for ten years and have had more that my share of interaction with teens. Working with Hospice volunteers, I know more than anyone should have know about the effects of AIDS.
No one here has said that abstinence wouldn’t have been better, but the fact is teens and young adults need to know how to protect themselves if they can’t wait, and too many of them can’t.
Believe whatever you what to believe, just stop expecting me to pay for it.
]]>Yes, I am a Christian…unapologetically so. I pray that His grace never escapes me.
]]>If you have moral objections to the use of contraceptive devices, why don’t you exhibit at least a minimal honesty and say so. Spreading garbage of the kind you are slinging, e.g., alleging that condoms are anything less than highly effective in reducing the likelihood of both pregnancy and STDs including HIV, is dangerous to young people. You… yes, you, personally… are endangering their very lives.
In a world in which adolescents and young adults face many dangers… you are making matters worse. Please cease. If your “morals” require you to continue, please at least exhibit a shred of honesty about your motives.
]]>The last local “Christian” home for teenage mothers was closed when the leader was convicted of statutory rape and molestation, so I’m not well disposed towards faith-based initiatives.
Abstinence education has failed, and that is a fact. As a taxpayer, I paid for those programs and now I’m paying for the failure. I resent that misuse of my tax monies.
]]>Catholics, as a group, due tend to have higher birth rates and to marry earlier, as do poor, rural populations. Immigration status isn’t really a factor, because the undocumented live below the radar and are rarely counted in any survey.
I helped a Census worker locate our local Spanish speaking population, but it involved negotiations with a couple of churches, and then, most weren’t counted.
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