Roundup: McCain Hits Obama on Sex Ed, Pregnancy Ambivalence, Questions for Palin, Sex Ed Nationwide

McCain Hits Obama on Sexuality Education

Sen. John McCain's campaign Tuesday released a television ad that suggests that Sen. Barack Obama supported teaching kindergartners about sex "before they learn to read" while he served in the Illinois Senate.  The bill, which was never voted on by the full Senate, would have expanded instruction to grades K through 5, and would have expanded instruction regarding prevention of sexual violence.  The bill also would have eliminated references to monogamous heterosexual marriage as the assumed goal for all students, and would require that information taught was medically accurate.  Obama supported the bill but did not sponsor it.  Obama spokesperson Bill Burton responded that it is "shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls."

We've got more for you: Scott covers the ad itself, Pamela Merritt explains what the "age-appropriate" in age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education actually means, and I cover McCain's and Palin's positions on sexuality education.

Debunking the Associated Press on Sex Education

Covering the McCain ad hitting Obama on sex ed, the AP reported:

The measure said schools offering sex education must include medically accurate information appropriate to the age of the students. The lessons were to cover the consequences of unprotected sex, the effects of various forms of contraception and the option of abstinence.

They're almost right -- yes, the measure did say that the sex education taught must be medically accurate and age-appropriate.  But being "age-appropriate" does not mean teaching the consequences of unprotected sex and forms of contraception to all ages.  Check out Pamela's piece for more on what's appropriate for different ages.

Midwest Voices at the Kansas City Star has a list of questions for Gov. Sarah Palin on the distinctions between biological, theological, and legal definitions of when life begins.  "Do you recognize that biological definitions of life and death are different from theological definitions about the creation and passing of the human soul?"  "Do you believe that government has the right to impose the religious views of some on others who do not share those views, including people of other faiths and people who do not have religious beliefs?"  If you need some questions to help you parse this deeply personal topic, this is a list for you, too.

Sexuality Education Offered Nationwide Inconsistent

USA Today offers voices of teens on the sexuality education they experienced. From:

"There was no sex education in my school," says Rebecca Carroll, 18, of Linden, Tenn. "It was in our book, but when I took it, the teacher completely skipped over the section on sexual health."

to:

Sam Weidman, 18, says his private high school in Hidden Hills, Calif., "definitely did cover a good amount of sex education. It was in biology class, and we spent about one-quarter (of the class) on sex education. Sexual orientation was covered primarily in psychology, but science was really a good class."

USA Today notes that the most recent study of abstinence-only and comprehensive sex ed programs -- published in the September issue of Sexuality Research & Social Policy -- found that most of the abstinence-only programs did not delay initiation of sex, while nearly half of the comprehensive programs delayed first sex, reduced the number of partners and increased condom or contraceptive use.

Purposeful Accidents

Fantasies about getting pregnant, creating a family or raising a child - even when not actively trying to get pregnant - can contribute to a couple's inconsistent use of contraception, researchers from Princeton and Columbia recently found.  The study, conducted through in-depth interviews, had a small sample size (24 women and 12 men), but participants were chosen such that half of all those interviewed had had an unintended pregnancy.  Researchers termed the participants' feelings toward pregnancy as "pregnancy ambivalence." Forty-eight percent of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended.

GRITtv Discusses Palin

Gloria Feldt and others appeared on GRITtv with Laura Flanders, discussing what Palin's candidacy means for feminism and for women.  "Sarah Palin is to women's rights as Clarence Thomas is to civil rights," says Gloria. Watch the rest!