About That New Abstinence Study

Townhall.com ^ | 2/3/2010 | Maggie Gallagher

[Servant of the Cross]

Somebody up there has a wicked sense of humor.

How else do you explain the release this week of a new study by John B. Jemmott III proving that an abstinence-only education program works?

First President Obama slashes virtually all federal funding for abstinence-only education programs in 2010. ("It's about time that evidence-based management -- and sanity -- return to family planning programs," applauded Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y.)

Then just last week, the Guttmacher Institute -- which is affiliated with Planned Parenthood, but usually does good science anyway -- reported that teen pregnancy rates are once again rising. Oddly, with a minimum of evidence, the Guttmacher Institute decided to blame abstinence-only education.

"After more than a decade of progress, this reversal is deeply troubling," intoned Heather Boonstra, the institute's senior public policy associate. "It coincides with an increase in rigid abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which received major funding boosts under the Bush administration. ... Fortunately, the heyday of this failed experiment has come to an end," and new federal rules ensure that programs will be "based on research demonstrating their effectiveness."

Good job, Obama!

Less scientifically credentialed voices spoke more like Scripps Howard columnist Bonnie Erbe: "A new study should silence members of the religious right who continue to support the nonexistent efficacy of abstinence-only sex education. ... Nothing silences zealots, least of all truth or the facts."

So the release of this new study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine this week is weirdly timely .... The main conclusion of this rigorous clinical trial? "The abstinence-only intervention compared with the health-promotion control intervention reduced by about 33 percent the percentage of students who ever reported having sexual intercourse by the time of the 24-month follow-up, controlling for grade, age and intervention-maintenance condition."

[Servant of the Cross]

The article concludes:

Are progressives like Carolyn Maloney going to call for an end to safer-sex education now? Will the Guttmacher Institute retract its attack? Will President Obama step forward to restore abstinence-only funding?

We will learn something about the alleged commitment of people like this to science from their response to this new research.

0bama and the libs are anti-science. The only 'science' they like is fraudulent, distorted or made out of whole cloth to serve their marxist purposes.

[jonno]

In your face bump!

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“0bama and the libs are anti-science. The only ‘science’ they like is fraudulent, distorted or made out of whole cloth to serve their marxist purposes.”

Shades of Lysenko...

[ClearCase_guy]

The traditional American concept of Separation of Church and State is a pretty good concept. I'd like to see Separation of Science and Politics.

Abortion/Breast cancer link?
Abstinence?
Public education of evolution?
Global warming?

There's a lot of politics in those topics. Perhaps not so much science.

[Notwithstanding]

There was no teen pregnancy epidemic from 1900 to 1980 (for example) while abstinence was the main method for preventing pregnancy.

It was only after birth control and casual sex became widely presented in morally neutral fashion in public shcools, and portrayed positively in the popular culture, that we encountered a tenn pregnancy epidemic.

If anything has failed, it is the “casual teen sex is good” dogma that our culture has adopted.

Abstinence always works. Endorsing behavior that has unwanted consequences continues to fail.

[Notwithstanding]

There is such thing as a traditional American concept of Separation of Church and State.

That mantra is a political device manufactured early last century to thwart the influence of religion, a concept which is antithetical to traditional American ideals.

[Servant of the Cross]

If anything has failed, it is the “casual teen sex is good” dogma that our culture has adopted.

You nailed it!

[RobbyS]

Back in the ‘50s, before the pill, abstinence was the default policy because girls enforced it. Have sex, get a baby, as a close relative of mine found out. She did it one time and boom! Embarrassed the heck out of her family. The popular movie “Summer Place”, with Sandra Dee, depicts the situation of unwed mothers very well. It also solves the problem of STDs. Nothing can solve the problem of growing up. I remember a line in “Cat Ballou,” about Jane Fonda's character, spoken by Harry Morgan in his memorable way, “puberty hit her hard.” So it was with most of us. But you learn that when you think with our gonads, you often make the wrong choice of time, place or person.

[Servant of the Cross]

because girls enforced it.

Exactly right. Unfortunately, this perverse and depraved culture has convinced a majority of our young ladies (daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughters, etc.) that to be 'loved' by a man (cad) you must portray a certain EXTERNAL appearance.

At least the last couple of generations almost need to go through a "de-tox". Here's a couple of great (and current) paths to the solution:

Theology of the Body for Teens

Pure Fashion

[Notwithstanding]

thx