Pregnancy High - Abstinence Education at Work

[Coexist]

I picked up my daughter's new Seventeen Magazine today, since there were no new Land's End catalogs to browse.

An article entitled "Pregnancy High" caught my attention. The article is not up on their website - I used their search engine, but I feel compelled to share it with you.

Timken High School in Canton, Ohio - during the 2004-2005 school year, 64 of the 490 girls in the school got pregnant. That's right - 13% of the female students got pregnant.

Guess what else - Timken has an abstinence-based sex-ed policy. Apparently, the health class discusses STDs and reproductive organs, but not contraceptives.

Ironically, the school mascot is the Trojan.

According to this article Ohio has received "$32 million in grants to Ohio agencies for abstinence education since 2001."

Tax money well spent, yes?!

One teen mom in the story who did use condoms shares how she learned about them, "I saw how to use one when I watched the movie Never Been Kissed -Drew Barrymore puts one on a banana."

Another had an aunt who took her to Planned Parenthood and got her a prescription for birth control pills but, "didn't realize how important it was to take the Pill every day for it to work."

How insane will this country get before it moves back to reality? Please, someone help me out here.

[pitohui]

1. well god bless seventeen magazine

i was sent a few complimentary issues for i don't know what reason and i was surprised to see each issue contained some hard information abt hiv, teen pregnancy, etc.

if the schools won't teach and the parents won't teach i guess it's up to a damn fashion magazine selling prom dresses!

that and, apparently, drew barrymore :-)

[Iris]

4. I actually had very good sex education in the 2 school systems

I attended, but continued to get timely information from Seventeen magazine throughout high school and college. The information is out there; it's just a matter of how to get it to kids in time.

[Warpy]

11. I got NO sex ed in school

but I had the kind of mother who got into hot water for telling teenagers in the neighborhood where babies came from and how to avoid them.

I always say knowing the facts about birth control and what happened when some selfish guy refused to wear a condom or I didn't have a place to put in the diaphragm or I wasn't on the pill or screwed 'em up caused me to be a late bloomer, sexually speaking. That's also been the experience in most of western Europe where complete sex education is provided.

Girls who are taught abstinence are taught a lot of herbal romance and fail to think ahead and protect themselves, something studies are showing in no uncertain terms.

I'm just wondering how many young girls will have their lives ruined by having babies too early before people come to their senses and reject this nonsense. Some never will, I know, but the majority will have to act eventually.

[Coexist]

13. my fundie step-mother was "shocked" by the content

I think it deals with a lot of important issues facing teens - like eating disorders, cutting, sex, STDs, etc.

[MadMaddie]

2. Unreal...the STD among this age group is going through the

roof where these abstinence programs are.

It's a the twilight zone.....

[catmother]

3. obviously teaching abstinence doesn't work. let's teach them

birth control and safe sex.:eyes:

[peacebird]

5. i taught my son about condoms in middle school - telling him that sex

was something better with someone you truly love BUT that he needed to also know that for all the pleasure sex surely can give there are some STD's that can last forever, and some STD's can KILL YOU.

i would rather give my son the tools he needs to make intelligent decisions and SURVIVE past his teenage years than hide my head in the sand and HOPE he fights off his raging hormones "solo"......

[geomon666]

6. Is it really that hard to figure out how to put a condom on?

I mean, I really didn't need a class or a movie to tell me how to do it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

7. Our 8th graders just had to have babies for a week. These

"toys" cry until held, fed, or changed. I heard one of our girls was up half the night with her baby when she first received it and was rather tired all through school the next day.

I think this makes a lot more sense than the flour sack and softball I had to tote around senior year of high school.

[Odin2005]

10. LOL! And I thought hauling around flour-sack babies was annoying.

[BlueJazz]

8. As a Computer Tech, I visit a lot of homes and you wouldn't...

..believe some of the things I hear Parents say..Like:
"Well, if she gets pregnant, maybe that will teach her to keep her legs closed".
And
"If we teach young people about Sex, they'll think it's OK to have Sex!"
And
"I don't want some school telling my daughter about sex"
(Yeah right Dad...She'll never find out about it thru her friends)

Pure Idiocy!

[sakabatou]

9. So... movies teach more about sex ed. than actual sex ed.

Backwards...

[Coexist]

12. Pretty sad, isn't it?

Because if you keep them ignorant, teens won't want to have sex.
Right.

[sakabatou]

14. Craaaaa-zy.