Americans Overwhelmingly Against Bush's Proposed Anti-contraception Regulations ... Two unscientific but telling polls conducted on AOL's news website [1] and US News and World Report's site [2] both say that 89% of respondents are against proposed regulations that would equate contraception with abortion effectively limiting access to birth control pills, IUDs and other common forms of contraception. Over 100,000 people have responded to the AOL poll while the US News and World Report poll does not give the total number of respondents. These huge margins are not restricted to the most liberal states, either. The AOL poll reveals that in every single state those stating opposition to the Bush regulations range from 87% - 95% of respondents in any given state.
How to Fix Sex Ed in America ... Violet Blue has an excellent article [3] today on SFGate giving a president Obama the prescription to heal America's ailing sex education system. Violet first notes the reason for change in sex ed curriculum:
The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world, and American adolescents are contracting HIV faster than almost any other demographic group [4]. Texas, with all those great abstinence-only textbooks, has the highest rate of teen births in the nation. And, duh — abortion rates are lowest in states where teens have access to accurate contraception information. In April 2007, a 20-page Columbia University study [5] exposed that abstinence curriculum statements about condom use are medically inaccurate. The American Civil Liberties Union, tired of the Department of Health and Human Services ignoring repeated warnings about incorrect data, sent the department a letter threatening legal action [6]. The ACLU is currently trying to get the DHHS to stop disseminating incorrect information — because doing so violates federal law [6].
Then she offers a five plank plan to create a more comprehensive, reality-based sex education curriculum:
- Kill the abstinence programs. Period. Think of them as creationism in schools: optional to include in curricula but privately funded only. Fire the f— out of anyone with a religious agenda in a position of power in relation to public health. We are a nation of many faiths — most of which are not being served with this nonsense.
- My best friend's daughter is 5, and brags that she has a boyfriend. Craft programs that are age appropriate so kids understand what they're doing every step of the way. Take a cue from England, where the Sex and Relationship Education program centers on "All About Us: Living and Growing" videos for 5-7-year-olds, 7-9-year-olds and 9-11-year-olds, with workbooks about healthy sexual relationships for kids (and adults) with learning disabilities [7].
- Require all sex ed programs to include practical information about reproduction (including a woman's right to choose and male responsibilities of parenthood), contraception, STDs and STIs, sexual pleasure, masturbation, consent, homosexuality, sexual tolerance, and gender identity. Kids are dealing with all this stuff; adults need to stop lying to themselves and have honest discourse with kids about it.
- Set aside federal funding for a teen sex ed counselor to be on school staff at all times, exclusively for hotline-style accurate sex information, and completely confidential. Our kids' health and futures depend on it. Require that they are tech- and Internet-savvy.
- Create a task force to research and implement outreach programs that visit schools for presentations on relevant and current sexual issues. This could include the Gardasil vaccination [8] (HPV shot), presentations on transgender issues, workshops on sexual consent, rape prevention and self-defense for girls, age-appropriate sex ed books, religious faith and sexuality, and sexual questions around — yes — political scandals.
Voters in California Support Parental Notification of Abortion ... A recent Field Poll [9] shows a 9% margin for requiring parental notification for minors to obtain abortion care in California. The margin of error was 5.6%.
Previous incarnations of parental notification measures were defeated twice in California in 2005 and 2006. Has there been an attitude shift?
Supporters say it is a shift in language. A newly added provision would allow teens in abusive home situations to have their physician notify another family member that they're seeking an abortion.
Previous ballot measures required teens to notify their parents, regardless of whether they came from an abusive home.
"This was designed to address the concerns raised about girls from abusive homes," said Katie Short, co-author of Proposition 4 and legal director for the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "This assuages a lot of peoples' concerns. The opposition played directly to that fear last time, and we've addressed it. If people pay attention to the details and don't just see this as 'oh, here we go again,' we should win."
A Shameful Ban ... The version of the PEPFAR bill that passed last week in the Senate included an amendment to finally rid America of a shameful ban on HIV positive immigrants. The ban was instituted in 1984 when we knew little about how the disease was spread. While we quickly learned that HIV is not spread through casual contact the ban has remained on the books all these intervening years. The Washington Post considers the PEPFAR amendment in an editorial today [10] reporting that the amendment grants Congressional auhtority to Department of Health and Human Services to repeal the ban but leaves the decision up to HHS. While HHS is not on our good side at the moment after the proposing of severely anti-contraception regulations last week we do hope they will take the final step to strike down a shameful ban.