Jenna Bush, Her Dad, Abstinence and Contraception
So, Jenna Bush, one of the First Twins, recently wrote a rather well-received book called Ana's Story, a fact-based account of encounters she had with a teenage mother in Central America, who sadly was infected with HIV. The former First Partier was in Latin America working with UNICEF as an intern, where she got first-hand experience, through Ana, with some of the policies propagated by our government.
Why is this interesting, you ask?
Well, it seems that the US government is all in favor of the provision of condoms and other forms of birth control outside of the country, as a way to both control unwanted pregnancy and to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS. The policy, known as ABC -- abstain, be faithful, use condoms -- is the message abroad.
Good, right? Funny thing though...Here in the 'States, government policy relies solely on teaching abstinence as the only course of action against STDs, and unwanted pregnancy.
"What's the beef," you ask. "We should be encouraging abstinence."
You're absolutely correct. Kids should wait a long while before having sex.
While it's good policy to promote abstinence as a first line of defense, we are insane if we don't emphasize practical measures for youth to protect themselves, in the form of condoms and/or birth control as well as exercising personal responsibility.
It seems that the President's chosen course of sexual health education here is to play ostrich and bury his head in the sand, promoting abstinence-only programs that make misstatements about the failure rate of condoms and to understate their ability to protect against disease. That is just plain stupid.
To be blind and believe that kids and adolescents won't experiment with sex is deluding ourselves, at best, and dangerous at worst. Let's just ask, how realistic was abstinence to most of the readers of this little piece of the Internet landscape?
Sure, 99% of us were implored to wait until marriage before we engaged in our first sexual experience. But, did we? Now, just for a moment, imagine doing it without any guidance, or worse yet, outright lies, on contraception or how to protect oneself.
Even Jenna Bush told Newsweek, "In Africa my dad's policies are pretty much in line with mine, but not domestically."
As an example of this crazy domestic policy, your president had appointed a man to be #2 at the Department of Health and Human Services who considered birth control "demeaning to women" and believed that making contraception available actually increased out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion. He was booted because of some...irregularities...with his Medicare billing as a private doctor.
The Cowboy's new choice for Deputy Secretary for Population Affairs at DHHS is a woman, Susan Orr, who once said that "fertility is not a disease" and that it was "not a medical necessity that you have [contraceptives]" when arguing against funding for contraceptives in insurance plans provided to federal employees.
She also said once that covering contraceptives like birth control pills and condoms was "not about health care. It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death."
Culture of Death?
Trying to reduce abortion and save people's lives against HIV/AIDS is about death? I thought it was about public health and well-being.
Her former employer, The (wrongly-named) Family Research Council argues against funding the family planning program that Orr is slated to supervise. "We don't think there is an argument for taxpayer funding of contraception," said its vice president Tom McClusky.
Interesting. So, conservative policy dictates that we live in a self-induced delusion now, and that we lie about the realities of sex? That explains a lot of why conservatives believe and act the way they do.
Still, we've been musing about this issue for a long time, and we've not come to a conclusion yet. 40 years ago, another politician said:
"We need to take sensationalism out of this topic," he said. "If family planning is anything, it is a public health matter."
That politician? George H.W. Bush, the present president's father.
Looks like more than just height skips a generation. So do some important things -- like intelligence.
Why is this interesting, you ask?
Well, it seems that the US government is all in favor of the provision of condoms and other forms of birth control outside of the country, as a way to both control unwanted pregnancy and to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS. The policy, known as ABC -- abstain, be faithful, use condoms -- is the message abroad.
Good, right? Funny thing though...Here in the 'States, government policy relies solely on teaching abstinence as the only course of action against STDs, and unwanted pregnancy.
"What's the beef," you ask. "We should be encouraging abstinence."
You're absolutely correct. Kids should wait a long while before having sex.
While it's good policy to promote abstinence as a first line of defense, we are insane if we don't emphasize practical measures for youth to protect themselves, in the form of condoms and/or birth control as well as exercising personal responsibility.
It seems that the President's chosen course of sexual health education here is to play ostrich and bury his head in the sand, promoting abstinence-only programs that make misstatements about the failure rate of condoms and to understate their ability to protect against disease. That is just plain stupid.
To be blind and believe that kids and adolescents won't experiment with sex is deluding ourselves, at best, and dangerous at worst. Let's just ask, how realistic was abstinence to most of the readers of this little piece of the Internet landscape?
Sure, 99% of us were implored to wait until marriage before we engaged in our first sexual experience. But, did we? Now, just for a moment, imagine doing it without any guidance, or worse yet, outright lies, on contraception or how to protect oneself.
Even Jenna Bush told Newsweek, "In Africa my dad's policies are pretty much in line with mine, but not domestically."
As an example of this crazy domestic policy, your president had appointed a man to be #2 at the Department of Health and Human Services who considered birth control "demeaning to women" and believed that making contraception available actually increased out-of-wedlock pregnancy and abortion. He was booted because of some...irregularities...with his Medicare billing as a private doctor.
The Cowboy's new choice for Deputy Secretary for Population Affairs at DHHS is a woman, Susan Orr, who once said that "fertility is not a disease" and that it was "not a medical necessity that you have [contraceptives]" when arguing against funding for contraceptives in insurance plans provided to federal employees.
She also said once that covering contraceptives like birth control pills and condoms was "not about health care. It's about making everyone collaborators with the culture of death."
Culture of Death?
Trying to reduce abortion and save people's lives against HIV/AIDS is about death? I thought it was about public health and well-being.
Her former employer, The (wrongly-named) Family Research Council argues against funding the family planning program that Orr is slated to supervise. "We don't think there is an argument for taxpayer funding of contraception," said its vice president Tom McClusky.
Interesting. So, conservative policy dictates that we live in a self-induced delusion now, and that we lie about the realities of sex? That explains a lot of why conservatives believe and act the way they do.
Still, we've been musing about this issue for a long time, and we've not come to a conclusion yet. 40 years ago, another politician said:
"We need to take sensationalism out of this topic," he said. "If family planning is anything, it is a public health matter."
That politician? George H.W. Bush, the present president's father.
Looks like more than just height skips a generation. So do some important things -- like intelligence.
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I know kids are going to have sex. They've been doing it for several millennia, last I checked. But shouldn't some responsible adult said something like "where are you going and be in the company of some adults...better yet, I'm going with you." And sh... Read More
At the heart this asinine policy is racism, classism, and an attempt to appease the conservative religious right. So long as the majority of people infected and harmed by the lack of sex education don't look like Bush and his kind he won't care.
I'm sure they will happily distribute condoms and pamphlets on birth control to poor Spanish speaking girls in other countries because God forbid they try to make their way here for a better life thereby ruining the illusion that this is not only the greatest country on Earth but one that gives a damn.
Bush and his administration have managed to systematically blur the line between church and state.
Points well taken TG.
At the very heart of this issue is the health and welfare of millions of people. It's a constant source of amazement how the right-to-life conservative crowd fail to see how proper sex education and provision of condoms and other birth-control aids will ultimately reduce the need for both abortion, leads to greater personal responsibility, things they claim to promote.
Once a republic, the United States moves steadily towards a "christian" theocracy -- without real Christianity. In many respects we are no better than the people we claim to be fighting in the middle east.