Posted on 04/01/2002 5:37:05 AM PST by rw4site
March 31, 2002, 6:08PM
Why we in public health did not give "The Battle of the Condoms" to the Defense Department so it could be properly classified as a "Weapon of Defense" against the war of sexually transmitted disease, unplanned pregnancies and HIV, I will never know.
Out of the 15 million people in the United States who get sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, every year, 4 million are teen-agers. Almost 50 percent of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned -- 92 percent of pregnancies for teen-agers. And HIV disease is increasing in the heterosexual population, especially among the young, the poor, and racial and ethnic minorities. Many of these outcomes could be prevented through fact-based sexuality education that stresses the truth about the protection provided by condoms.
The secretary of state, Colin Powell, in responding to questions about HIV from teens around the world, recently said: "It's important that the whole international community come together, speak candidly about it, forget the taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you shouldn't tell young people about. It's the lives of young people who are put at risk by unsafe sex and, therefore, protect yourself ... In my own judgment, condoms are a way to prevent infection -- and, therefore, I support their use ... among people who are sexually active and need to protect themselves."
We heard a huge outcry from the religious right that condoms will not protect against all STDs -- they will break or slip off. And Powell's statements went against the administrative policy of "abstinence only" until marriage.
The mean age of marriage is 26 years, while the mean age of puberty is 11.4 years. The fact is that 93 percent of men and 80 percent of women are not virgins on their wedding night. How can protecting the health of the American people -- especially the young, the poor and the underserved -- be against administrative policy?
We are spending a quarter of a billion dollars for abstinence education in our schools when there is no scientific basis that abstinence-only education is effective. Abstinence education as it is presently taught does not allow our educators to tell young people anything about contraception or disease-prevention.
Here's what you can tell them: Sexual activity outside of marriage has harmful psychological and physical effects, and the expected standard of human behavior confines sexual activity to marriage.
There are about 12 million problems with this approach -- 12 million being the number of sexually active teens in this country who are 19 or younger. More than 70 percent of teen-agers have had sex by the age of 18, and 80 percent by 19. Yes, condoms can break, they can slip off, but they are still the best protection that we have available.
I commend Powell for speaking openly and honestly to the world's teen-agers and demonstrating knowledge of the problems we have with regards to sexual health. Just a few of the recent statistics show:
·Of the 210 million pregnancies throughout the world each year, 38 percent are unplanned and 22 percent end in abortion.
·Thirty-three percent of births in the United States are to unmarried women, and 13 percent of births are to teen-agers.
·There are 800,000 to 900,000 persons living with HIV, and approximately 40,000 new infections occur every year.
·There is an 85 percent decrease in risk of HIV transmission among consistent condom users, compared with non-users.
·No sexuality education program has ever been found to increase sexual activity or to encourage students to engage in intercourse at earlier ages. In fact, comprehensive sexuality education delays first intercourse, reduces the risk of teen-age pregnancy and reduces the number of sexual partners.
The politicians and health officials could do much more to improve sexual health in our country. We could provide comprehensive health and sexuality education in our schools -- from kindergarten up to 12th grade -- as opposed to teaching abstinence only.
We could increase funding for family planning. The Title X family-planning program receives only $265 million for the 52 million women of reproductive age, including 10 million teens, needing those services. The government needs to support reproductive-health programs and reproductive-rights issues. Fertility control and the maintenance of reproductive health are not luxuries. They are essential to women's lives.
We need to make sure that we are honest with young people and that we empower them with the knowledge they need, so they can be responsible for their own reproductive health.
We all support abstinence, but abstinence needs a companion piece -- honest, accurate information about contraception and the prevention of STDs and HIV.
Our statistics show that the vows of abstinence break more easily than latex condoms.
How can such ignorance be countered? ...and from an MD, too!
The Left is incapable of being honest about the latter. There's just too much money in promiscuity.
Yep, those hormones sure are powerful at that age.
This leap of logic was also breathtaking:
The fact is that 93 percent of men and 80 percent of women are not virgins on their wedding night. How can protecting the health of the American people -- especially the young, the poor and the underserved -- be against administrative policy?
How did that 93%, which she probably pulled out of her carville, translate to poor and underserved?
And probably supports the fat tax "for our own good."
Virgins don't create statistics. There's a lot of them out there, but they don't get counted in the propaganda articles. It would defeat the purpose.
We live in a conservative area. Teen pregnancy is the exception, not the norm. Teen sex is not "in." Virginity is.
There's a lot of churches around here.
BTW - Elders just wrote the introduction for a book that promotes pedophilia, yes thats right, a book that promotes child rape.
The left will endorse anything that will help the moral breakdown of America.
Through moral breakdown, thousands of government controlled social programs have risen.
The more programs, the more dependance.
The more dependance, the more goverment power.
The more government power, the greater the Marxist agenda works.
The more the Marxist agenda works, the closer they get to dictatorship and the revocation of the US Constitution that stands in their way.
Yet, they claim all the acceptance of immoral behavior is Constitutional, the very docturine they are attempting to destroy.
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