Bush on AIDS= Don't Have Sex.
By David BrownYep that's right $15 Billion and the main message is don't screw. It is not that I am against abstinence as a ONE OF THE MEANS of AIDS prevention. It is just completely impractical to present this message and expect people to NOT LAUGH IN YOUR FACE.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 2006;
Page A03
The requirement that a large fraction of President Bush's global AIDS plan go to promote abstinence and fidelity is causing confusion in many countries and in a few is eroding other prevention efforts, including ones to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Those are among the chief conclusions of an 87-page report by the Government Accountability Office that examined the most controversial aspect of the giant AIDS plan, budgeted at $15 billion over five years.
The survey of U.S.-funded programs in 20 countries -- 15 of them the focus of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) -- found widespread support for the "ABC" strategy that encourages abstinence until marriage, being faithful thereafter and using condoms in high-risk sexual encounters.
I am sorry to break this to you people but sex is natural and dammit it is FUN. Abstinence as the only solution does not work. What really pisses me off is that this myopic Bible Belt dogma is presented as functional and they are spending my tax dollars to promote it.
What we need in this country and, if we really want to help the world through these programs, is comprehensive sex education. It must teach abstinence and contraception. Self Control and Self Protection side by side. They both work and if taught together might actually save a few lives!
Of the top ten states in teen pregnancy per capita, EIGHT of them are "Red States". In the top 5 ALL are "Red States" and stress abstinence only education.
Data is from www.teenpregnancy.org: Girls 15-19 in 2000, National avg 84 per 1000, next data release c. 2007 from data culled in 2004 (Numbers are per 1000 teens 15-19 ):
50 Nevada 113/1000
49 Arizona 104/1000 (Read the 2003 report: Sexual activity increased from 14% to 19%
48 New Mexico 103/1000
47 Mississippi 103/1000
46 TEXAS 101/1000 (Uses textbooks that cover <only abstinence education)
To be honest and this is strictly my gut reaction. I believe the parents truly want abstinence-only to work. however I also believe that many of the self-appointed leaders of the religious right want abstinence only to serve their purpose.
They do not care if it works or not, they know it doesn't and they have a vested interest in it failing. More teens pregnant the more potential abortions. The more abortions the more marches, protests, media attention, and yes more money from their frantic flock.
The sheeple and desperate parents just can not or will not make this critical connection and so they send money to these shuckers and jivers, they don't see the huckster wrap the salve in a Bible and call it a cure. They pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
That is why they are constantly disappointed and frustrated in their efforts to "God-ify" the country. Their leper prophets do not want it to become reality, hell what would become of their sales pitch?
While we must fight to protect a woman's right to control her body as confirmed in Roe v Wade 1973, we MUST also protect our other right to sexual privacy established in Griswold v Connecticut (1965) and the which answered the question: