Roundup: FactCheck.org Disproves Claims in McCain Sex Ed Ad

FactCheck.org Says "Don't Believe It" About McCain Sex Education Ad ... Yesterday the independent web site FactCheck.org published its review of the recent McCain-Palin ad attacking Obama for supporting "legislation to teach 'comprehensive sex education' to kindergartners." The ad insinuates that Obama supports teaching explicitly about sex to kindergarten aged students.  FactCheck reports that the bill Obama supported in the Illinois legislature included provisions to teach an "age-appropriate" curriculum starting in kindergarten to address issues such as "inappropriate touching"  to help students recognize sexual assault and rape.  Obama explained his understanding of "age-appropriate" sex education in 2004 when asked about it by Alan Keyes, his opponent for the U.S. Senate:

We have a existing law that mandates sex education in the schools. We want to make sure that it's medically accurate and age-appropriate. Now, I'll give you an example, because I have a six-year-old daughter and a three-year-old daughter, and one of the things my wife and I talked to our daughter about is the possibility of somebody touching them inappropriately, and what that might mean. And that was included specifically in the law, so that kindergartners are able to exercise some possible protection against abuse, because I have family members as well as friends who suffered abuse at that age. So, that's the kind of stuff that I was talking about in that piece of legislation. 

The FactCheck piece goes on to list several other education bills that Obama supported and even co-sponsored to dispute the ad's claim that the sex education bill was Obama's "one accomplishment."  FactCheck concludes by noting several quotes shown in the ad that were taken out of context and includes a quote from a blog response by Steve Chapman, the author of one of the quotes taken out of context:

... the ad itself doesn't bother explaining how the candidates differ on school vouchers, the subject of my column. Instead, it insults our intelligence by expecting us to believe that Obama thinks kindergartners should be taught how to use condoms before they're taught to read. Right. And Joe Biden eats puppies for breakfast.

From 1996 to 2006, the overall teen pregnancy rate in Arizona fell by 31 percent, but increased 4.7 percent from 2005 to 2006. Over the same decade, the birth rate for 18- and 19-year-olds increased by an unprecedented 13.3 percent.

At least one professional working in the field blames a lack of education on the troublesome rise:

"They don't really understand how their bodies work," said Bronwyn Paes, director of the pregnancy and parenting program. "They're not protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections. They aren't using condoms."

Of course the rise in teen pregnancy is a national phenomenon not limited to Arizona.  A great piece in the student newspaper of the University of Maryland reminds us that the nation's highest profile teen pregnancy should compel us to discuss the problem of rising rates of unplanned teen pregnancy:

With the revelation that Sarah Palin’s underage, unwed daughter is pregnant, both political parties are clamoring to pronounce that her family is off limits to the political debate.

While on its own this is a noble notion, we as a nation are missing an opportunity to have a real discussion on the high rate of unplanned teenage pregnancies in this country. The latest surveys show that the united States led the industrialized world in unplanned teenage pregnancies.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the rate for those ages 15-to-19 was 41.9 births per 1,000 in 2006. The estimated annual cost just for 1996 can be broken down as follows:

Teenage mothers cost the country an additional $2.2 billion annually in welfare and food stamp benefits, medical care costs are an added $1.5 billion, foster care expenses are increased by $900 million. In addition, the government loses about $1.3 billion a year in tax revenues from the reduced productivity of women who bear children as teens. Exactly how effective our government response has been to this crisis is debatable.

The major debate currently dealing with this issue is exactly how effective the $10 billion spent by the federal government on abstinence-only education over the last ten years was. Long term studies have shown that abstinence-only education will not prevent kids from experimenting with sex any later than other more traditional forms of sex education.

AIDS Rate Doubles for Michigan Youth ... Rising unplanned pregnancy is not the only reproductive health problem facing teens in America today.  New numbers from better tracking methodology recently released by the CDC show that teens in Michigan and around the country are increasingly contracting HIV:

The epidemic is much worse nationwide than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously estimated and it's growing at a troubling rate among youth and young adults in Metro Detroit.

In Michigan, where an estimated 18,000 are living with HIV/AIDS, the rate for those ages 13-24 has almost doubled from 5.7 to 9.7 cases per 100,000 residents from 2002-2006, based on Michigan Department of Community Health data.

The CDC previously estimated about 40,000 new HIV cases each year. But better tracking technology has raised that by 40 percent to 56,300 new cases in 2006, according to a recent report by the Journal of the American Medical Association. More than a third of new infections are people ages 13-29.

Demonstrators Oppose Colorado Personhood Amendment Saying it "Goes Too Far" ... Protestors objecting to Colorado's proposed Amendment 48, that would define personhood as beginning at conception, demonstrated yesterday:

Opponents of Amendment 48 gathered inside the Tivoli Center at the Auraria campus Wednesday to kick off their campaign and blast the measure as going "too far" in its attempt to legally define personhood.

Waving signs echoing that sentiment, about 80 people cheered when Ryan Osmond arrived with his wife and young daughter to speak on behalf of those who used in-vitro fertilization to conceive.

Osmond said that by defining an egg at the moment of fertilization as a person and by giving it full protections under the state Constitution, the proposed amendment could "open the door to prevent in-vitro pregnancies."

"It creates legal uncertainty," he said.

The Day's Sarah Palin Coverage ... The nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin for Vice President has caused quite a stir.  Everyday since her nomination the media coverage of the election has been dominated by journalists and Opinionators trying to find out more about and define the public's perception of this new arrival on the national political scene.  The past 24 hours have been no different. Carla Marinucci asks in SFGate asks "In a presidential race in which unexpected factors like lipsticks and pigs have driven questions about sexism and feminism, a central question remains: What do women want?"  Rosemary Compesano of WomenCount.org remains confident that women want a debate on the issues they care about, not made up controversies:

Camposano said women need to stay with issues and not get distracted by such media-created controversies.

"We're going to quickly grow weary of the accusations of sexism," she said. "Women know when they've been attacked ... and when it was questioned if (Palin) could be a good mother, that was sexism.

"But is it sexism to use these kinds of stupid phrases? It's troubling we're talking about 'lipstick on a pig' over whether Sarah Palin has any capability to bring wage equality and in ensuring health care for children and child care programs for women who work.

"It's about where she stands on the issues," said Camposano. "There, we have a real opportunity to debate."

David Crary, writing for The Associated Press, notes that the selection of Palin has re-energized the abortion debate, especially for those who oppose the right:

Veteran leaders in the anti-abortion camp say they have never before seen the degree of enthusiasm that greeted Palin's selection as John McCain's Republican running mate. She opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and lived out her convictions by bearing an infant son she knew had Down syndrome.

Madeleine Kunin, in the Huffington Post, reminds voters that the McCain-Palin ticket would likely threaten Roe v. Wade considering McCain's promise to select justices "in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas" and Palin's opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. 

The Editorial Board of the New York Times published a word of warning about Palin's "pro-family" posturing yesterday afternoon saying that her political rollout has successfully portrayed her as "the country’s new No. 1 mom":

The explicit, implicit, and unavoidable message from all the oratory and the family stagecraft was that Governor Palin understands and cares deeply about the issues that moms care about, like children, health care, and education.

But the Editorial Board warns that "people who follow such issues closely in Alaska say her record as governor suggests otherwise," including the failure to expand funding for a successful program that provides health insurance to pregnant women and children.

Palin's selection has also generated debate about the amorphous idea of Feminism and how she does or does not fit into it.  Today Rebecca Traister of Salon wrote about her personal emotional reaction to the selection of Palin and explains her belief that the election of McCain-Palin would ultimately be a detriment to the advancement of women and her idea of feminism.  

Real Clear Politics published a piece this morning by Victor Davis Hanson, a historian from Stanford University, in which Hanson claims that Sarah Palin has challenged what he believes to be a limited idea of feminism that has emerged in recent years and believes that Palin's story is one that should be celebrated according to the "old" idea of feminism that "in its essence feminism still was about equality of opportunity."