Teen pregnancy and disease rates rose sharply during Bush years, agency finds.
Sarah Palin's family alone are a testament to the fact that "abstinence only" plans simply don't work. Now it appears that the entire Bush presidency has delivered the exact same message.
I don't expect facts to have any effect on the Christian fundamentalist view of this subject, which is why they can propose using Bristol Palin as an Ambassador for Abstinence. These people simply insist that their way is the best even when there is mountainous evidence to the contrary.In a report that will surprise few of Bush's critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.
The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.
But facts are stubborn things. And the truth is that when it came to preventing teenage pregnancies and sexual diseases amongst adolescents, the Bush regime was an unmitigated failure.
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3 comments:
It is a very nice website and deals with the issue teenage pregnancy with much precision. It is a well known fact that abstinence only policy has failed and it holds no good among teenagers. If we try to impose abstinence only policy on the teenagers they think that the adults are trying to put and end to their freedom and also stopping them from having fun. Therefore, we have devise ways to deal with this menace in such a manner that may induce teenagers to take birth control measures.
This is ironic considering Bush was a conservative.
Certain teenagers will have sex no matter how many times they are told to abstain. The real question is whether or not we educate them on a safe way of doing so or leave them in ignorance with utterly predictable results.
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