About that abstinence-only sex education we're spending $176 million on each year: It's not working. Among teens ages 15 to 19 in the United States, the birth rate rose 3 percent in 2006, the first increase since 1991. Of course, everyone who studies this subject realizes that this is in large part due to the failures of the Bush administration's policy of telling kids to just keep it in/out of their pants. Except, of course, those who still seem to think they're right:
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said that blaming abstinence-only programs was "stupid." Mr. Rector said that most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.
Setting aside the fact that their entire policy is to not make young people "highly educated" about birth control, even if kids were educated, this administration has done everything in its power to limit access to contraceptives. Not to mention convincing these kids that contraceptives don't work, which doesn't do much to inspire sexually active teens to use them.
Where does Rector think the problem really lies? Why, the fact that we don't have enough abstinence-only education telling kids to wait until they're married to have sex:
"We should be telling them that for the well-being of any child, it's critically important that you be over the age of 20 and that you be married," he said. "That message is not given at all."
When your plan fails, ignore all the evidence and try the same thing again. It's the conservative way!
--Kate Sheppard
