No Shit Dept.: US teenage pregnancy rose sharply in Bush years

[BurtWorm]

What do you expect from abstinence-only idiocy:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/20/bush-teen-pregnancy-cdc-report


|||Today 12:18 PM|Chris McGreal
• Aids cases in adolescent boys have nearly doubled
• Fall in gonorrhea infection rate reversed

Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush's evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US's major public health body.

In a report that will surprise few of Bush's critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

In addition, about 16,000 pregnancies were reported among 10- to 14-year-old girls in 2004 and a similar number of young people in the age group reported having a sexually transmitted disease.

"It is disheartening that after years of improvement with respect to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, we now see signs that progress is stalling and many of these trends are going in the wrong direction," said Janet Collins, a CDC director.

Although the CDC does not attribute a cause, groups that support comprehensive sex education have seized on the report as evidence of the failure of religiously-driven policies that shy away from teaching about contraception in favour of emphasising avoiding sexual contact.

Planned Parenthood said the CDC report is "alarming" and confirms that teenagers need "medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education".

But supporters of abstinence-based education said that the new report shows that there is too little not too much emphasis on discouraging sex before marriage.

...

[notadmblnd]

1. people are going to have sex, including our teens

hell, even our religious congressmen can't keep it in their pants.

There have been times where I've had a discussion with these anti sex education people. I have found that most often, these people are men that have no problem referring to these women/girls as sluts and whores. The argument usually ends with stunned silence, when I tell these men that if they were able to keep it in their pants, there would never be an unwanted pregnancy.

[AndyA]

2. Hey, abstinence works.

Ignore the statistics and facts. We know abstinence is the best way, Bushco told us so.

:sarcasm:

[louis-t]

3. Abstinence works, demanding abstinence doesn't.

[rurallib]

4. I submit the Palin family as living proof.

[Echo In Light]

5. Bushco appointed sexual health 'experts' were telling people condoms don't prevent disease

Consider how sick that is...

[Contrary1]

6. That last sentence is typical of the Bushbots.

"But supporters of abstinence-based education said that the new report shows that there is too little not too much emphasis on discouraging sex before marriage."

Give the program some more time...maybe they can drive the rates up even higher. :eyes:

[hfojvt]

7. a couple other links

CDC press release http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2009/r090716a.htm

actual report http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5806a1.htm

According to that report, 24.1% of those aged 20-24 have had over six different partners. 30.1% claimed that they never received instruction in birth control before age 18. Almost 50% said they talked with their parents.