Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right - Al Franken [116]
Bush says that this “sends a contradictory message.” He thinks that kids can’t understand the message that abstinence is a good idea, but that if you do have sex, you should use birth control. I have two kids. I have to tell you, they find Bush’s position more than a little patronizing. And honestly, I don’t think there was ever a time when they were simultaneously too young to understand this concept, yet also physically old enough to have sex.
Brian Wilcox of the University of Nebraska looked at the statistics and found “mounting evidence” (that’s right, he said “mounting evidence”) that abstinence-only programs do not reduce pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, they may do more harm than good.
A Northern Kentucky University study showed that 61 percent of college undergraduates who had taken virginity pledges broke them—and were less likely to use condoms when they had sex for the first time than were those students who had never taken the pledge in the first place. By the way, my favorite part of the study was the finding that of those who did not break their virginity pledges, 55 percent had engaged in oral sex. The study did not explore the incidence of spooning.
A less interesting but more significant study by Peter Bearman and Hannah Bruckner at Columbia University found that students who had gone through “virginity pledge” programs were a third less likely to use contraceptives when they first had sex. A researcher explained that young people who have made a solemn pledge to God to remain chaste are less likely to carry condoms.
Bush might have gotten a clue from his term as governor of Texas, where he spent over $10 million on abstinence-only education. Texas has the forty-sixth-worst teen pregnancy rate in the country. While he was governor and Bill Clinton was president, teen birth rates went down throughout the country. But if you look at how much each state improved, Texas was ranked second to last.
Now, many people would look at all these statistics and conclude that it’s time to stop funding abstinence-only education. I don’t agree. I think the problem is not the programs themselves, but our cultural climate. TV and movies glorify sex. The cast members of Friends hop in and out of bed with one another. And just look at the Internet. There are whole websites devoted to Friends!
There’s one way to make these abstinence-only programs work. We need to change the whole culture. We need to show these sex-crazed, hard-bodied teens that it’s “cool” to be a virgin. And that’s why I have sent the following letter to twenty-seven of our nation’s most respected public figures.
Here’s a copy of the one I sent to Attorney General Ashcroft.
April 21, 2003
Attorney General John Ashcroft U. S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Ashcroft,
I am currently a Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where I am working on a book about abstinence programs in our public schools entitled, Savin’ It! In these days of rampant immorality, unwanted pregnancies, and dangerous sexual diseases, Savin’ It! will document how the Bush administration is championing abstinence programs and setting the right example for America’s youth. The book’s fourth chapter, “Role Modelin’ It!”, will feature the personal stories of abstinence heroes for our nation’s young people to emulate. Isn’t it about time for our young people to have a chance to look up to leaders who truly walked the walk—instead of just talking the talk—by not having sex until they were married? I would very much appreciate it if you could share your abstinence story. So far, I have received wonderful testimonies from HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, William J. Bennett, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Cardinal Egan,