George W. Bush bowed to the religious right during his presidency, and reversed government policy on sex education in public schools. His administration allowed state and local school districts to abandon teaching real sex education (including the teaching about the various methods of birth control), and many red states followed his lead by outlawing the teaching of anything but abstinence-only.
This turned out to be a disaster. While the religious right was thrilled to have their religious views taught instead of sex education, it didn't slow down the number of teenagers experimenting with sex -- and it resulting in a lot of needless pregnancies. The simple fact is that teaching abstinence-only did not work.
And it looks like the American people have learned that lesson. The chart above was made from a recent YouGov Poll that was done between December 30th and January 2nd of 1,000 adults (with about a 4 point margin of error). It shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans now reject the abstinence-only programs. They want real sex education taught in public schools, including the teaching of all the methods of birth control.
And that view cuts across all demographic groups -- gender, race, age, and political persuasion. Somewhat surprising to me was the fact that even Republicans support the teaching of the various methods of birth control (59% to 22%, a substantial majority and margin).
They know that the proper place for abstinence-only teaching is in the home or the church. But they want the schools to give teenagers the tools to avoid teen pregnancies. They know that a teen pregnancy can derail promising young lives for many years -- maybe even permanently.
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The map below is from Cosmopolitan magazine, and was compiled by the Population Institute. It gives a grade to every state on reproductive rights -- and 15 states currently get a "F", while another 8 get a "D". The teaching of proper sex education and the availability of methods of birth control to teenagers made up part of these grades. Here is a description of everything considered in those grades:
The Population Institute looked at several criteria in evaluating all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including effectiveness (data on rates of teen and unintended pregnancy); prevention (mandated comprehensive sexual health education in schools and access to emergency contraception); affordability (whether the state accepted the Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act, a state's Medicaid eligibility rules on family planning, and the state's funding of family planning services for low-income residents); and access (abortion restrictions and what percentage of women in the state live in a county without an abortion provider).
Teaching abstinence is as scientifically relevant as teaching creationism and flat-earthism in science class.
ReplyDeleteIn other words the religious powers want people to be stupid enough to buy their BS and keep them relevant.