No Sex Please - we're Republicans!

Every so often the Republicans reveal just how far out of step they are with the rest of the human race.

They originally targeted teenagers with their "no sex without marriage" campaign which, although reeking of religious fervour, had the undeniable advantage that it might just help to reduce teenage pregnancy.

But now they have expanded the group of people that they are targeting - and it's no longer confined to teens:

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

What planet are these loons occupying?

"They've stepped over the line of common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. "To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It's an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health."

This is another example of the Republicans playing rather cynically to their religious base. They surely know the figures and also know that the campaign has no chance of success, but it makes it look as if they are "doing something" to appease their Fundamentalist base.

However, they surely know the rest of the country are watching this nonsense?

Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says abstinence programs are among many messages that have helped reduce teen pregnancy rates. But "the notion that the federal government is supporting millions of dollars worth of messages to people who are grown adults about how to conduct their sex life is a very divisive policy," she says.

"We would oppose any program that stigmatizes unmarried people," adds Nicky Grist, executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, a non-profit organization based in Brooklyn, N.Y., that advocates for the rights of unmarried people.

I thought the Republicans were supposed to be the party that didn't like "Big Government" interfering in people's personal lives? Apparently that only applies outside of the sexual arena.

tag: Republicans, pregnancy, "no sex without marriage", Advocates for Youth, Abstinence,