Republicans spend another $50 MIL to say GFY!

posted by The Vidiot @ 2:36 AM Permalink

Your tax dollars at work:

Abstinence message goes beyond teens

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.
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.
[...]
Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method to prevent pregnancy or disease. They give no instruction on birth control or safe sex.

The National Center for Health Statistics says well over 90% of adults ages 20-29 have had sexual intercourse.

So they aren't exactly preaching to the choir. Besides, or more to the point, if they're already f**king wouldn't one think that telling them about birth control and safe sex would be a better approach?

Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the revision is aimed at 19- to 29-year-olds because more unmarried women in that age group are having children.

Government data released last month show that 998,262 births in 2004 were to unmarried women 19-29, the ages with the most births to unmarried women.

I'm sure it cums as a shock to these people, but lots of folks want children, (please, no Catholic priest or Congressman Foley jokes), they just don't want a husband or a wife, not to mention the folks who want children but aren't allowed by the State to have a husband or wife.

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.
[...]
"I think the program should talk about the problem with out-of- wedlock childbearing — not about your sex life," Brown says. "If you use contraception effectively and consistently, you will not be in the pool of out-of-wedlock births."

She almost had me there with the talk about not interfering with adults' sex lives, but the pool of out-of-wedlock births for 20 to 29 year olds probably contains more chlorine than the pool of in-of-wedlock births.

Aside from the snark, abstinence-only programs lie and don't work. 'nuff said.