Wisconsin Republicans Forcing Conservative Values and Lifestyle on Public

photo from Glee Wikia

Ostriches are not dumb enough to actually stick their heads in the sand.  That honor belongs to Republicans.  Scott Walker who ran on a jobs first agenda in Wisconsin, became one of the three (Kasich R-Oh, Walker R-Wi, Scott R-Fl) most reviled governor in the country, when he led an attack on union bargaining rights that angered the population.   This fall the governor facing rising unemployment numbers in his state called a special session of the legislature, called "back to work, Wisconsin".  "Back to Work, Wisconsin" is featuring as part of their "job creating agenda" a repeal of the states comprehensive sex education program to be replaced with, abstinence only sex education.  Senate bill 237 replaces a scientifically accurate, medically accurate and age  appropriate education about sex, reproductive health, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases.  The medically accurate program that was just initiated in Wisconsin schools this January was signed by the previous democratic governor.  Abstinence only programs have been a focus of many studies and they all come to the same conclusion: they are completely ineffective at preventing teens from engaging in sexual activity.  In addition, abstinence only programs leaves those teens who do engage in sexual activity completely defenseless against STD's and pregnancy.

Abstinence-only programs show little evidence of sustained (long-term) impact on attitudes and intentions. Worse, they show some negative impacts on youth's willingness to use contraception, including condoms, to prevent negative sexual health outcomes related to sexual intercourse. Importantly, only in one state did any program demonstrate short-term success in delaying the initiation of sex; none of these programs demonstrates evidence of long-term success in delaying sexual initiation among youth exposed to the programs or any evidence of success in reducing other sexual risk-taking behaviors among participants.

Five years of abstinence-only-until-marriage education, assessing the impact

Teenagers will have sex.  Our species profligate fecundity attests to our innate powerful drive to reproduce.  Attempting to stifle millions of years of evolutionary selection with a "just say no" policy is beyond lunacy. 

 87% of Wisconsin voters support requiring comprehensive sex ed instruction that includes information about both abstinence and contraception.
 72% of parents of junior high school students and 65% of parents of high school students stated that federal government funding “should be used to fund more comprehensive sex education programs that include information on how to obtain and use condoms and other contraceptives” instead of funding sex education programs that have “abstaining from sexual activity” as their only purpose.[1.]

Scott Walker and his republican legislators care not for scientific studies or about the general populations attitudes represented through effective and accurate polling.  Scott Walker and his cronies have a socially conservative message and lifestyle they intend to force on the public whether they like it or not, regardless if it is scientifically sound or not.  If Scott Walker and his republican cronies haven't done an effective job preventing the schools from educating teens about sex, sexual diseases and contraception, then theirs always the DA.  A DA in Junea county is warning teachers that educating students about their sexuality could lead to charges of contributing to the delinquency of minors.   The wisconsin legislature is also trying to pass a bill that would keep private health insurance companies from paying for abortions.

But Nicole Safer with Planned Parenthood says state and federal law already specifically prohibit nearly all taxpayer paid abortions. What the bill will really do, said Safer, is to take away abortion provided by private health care plans that people pay for with their own money. “Any where from 50 to 80 percent of private health plans do cover abortion services right now. That coverage is going to be taken away from women in their health plans. That’s what this bill is going to do: take away coverage in private health plans that individuals pay for with their own money.”

Fortunately, in the first 12 days Wisconsinites determined to recall Walker have gathered over 300,000 signatures.  They have 60 days to get the half a million signatures required to force a recall of Scott Walker. 
Do Wisconsinites want to live in the dark, and adopt a conservative lifestyle by rule of law?   We'll have our answer sometime this spring. 

References
[1.]Fact Sheet: Healthy Youth Act
http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/stats/pdf/youthsexualbehavior.pdf
scott-walker-wisconsin-abstinence-jobs-plan

Related articles

• Abstinence only programs work effectively to increase teen pregnancy (ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com)
• Abstinence education does not lead to abstinent behavior (scienceblog.com)
• Public Schools criminally incompetent on sex education (ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com)
• Arkansas is promoting sexual ignorance (freethoughtblogs.com)
• Wisconsin Senate Passes Abstinence Sex-Ed Bill, in Spite of Statistics (ibtimes.com)
• Scott Walker's New Jobs Plan: Abstinence-Only Education (huffingtonpost.com)
• Scott Walker to focus on jobs by increasing teen pregnancy (dailykos.com)
•  http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/17/370875/gov-scott-walkers-latest-jobs-proposal-abstinence-only-sex-education

Abstinence only programs work effectively to increase teen pregnancy

Watch this clip where Governor Rick Perry, oblivious to facts, obstinately clings to the illusory effectiveness of abstinence only education.  In 2005 88,000 teens became pregnant in his state.  Texas is third in the nation in unplanned teen pregnancies.  Texas is number 1 in teen births and number 13 in teen abortions. [1.] Nationwide two-thirds of teenagers who become pregnant do not finish high school; leaving these young people at a severe disadvantage for their lifelong earnings potential and places huge burdens on their personal lives and the personal and financial resources of their parents.  Often these young people require public assistance for housing, food stamps and healthcare.  It's hard enough to get by in this post Bush economy but start out with a child at 17 or younger and the problems are almost insurmountable.  This is not a new problem in Texas, in 2002 The Union of Concerned Scientists specifically mentioned the ineffectiveness of abstinence only sex-education in a bulletin entitled  "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking".

"Just Say Don't Know, Sexuality Education in Texas Public Schools" written by Kelly Wilson PhD and David Wiley, PhD is a 76 page factual horror on the lack of proper or in many cases any sexual education.  It's excellent and a huge eye-opener.  Some of the findings from the study:

F i n d i n g 1 : Most Texas students receive no instruction about human sexuality apart from the promotion of sexual abstinence.
What you do know can also hurt you…
F i n d i n g 3 : Sexuality education materials used in Texas schools regularly contain factual errors and perpetuate lies and distortions about condoms and STDs.
F i n d i n g 4 : Shaming and fear-based instruction are standard means of teaching students about sexuality.
F i n d i n g 5 : Instruction on human sexuality in Texas often promotes stereotypes and biases based on gender and sexual orientation.
F i n d i n g 6 : Some Texas classrooms mix religious instruction and Bible study into sexuality education programs.

 The excellent report by Legal Momentum Sex Lies and Stereotypes How Abstinence-Only programs Harm Women and Girls [3.] finds the same results nationwide and also examines the harm abstinence only programs have inflicted globally.  Abstinence only education, often containing misinformation and which relies on stereotypes and authoritarian methods is in direct opposition to the educated and well informed citizen base a democratic society requires.   "Abstinence works... it is the best form to teach our children," Perry claims in this video. By clinging to christian dogma and refusing to face facts Governor Rick Perry and the educational system in Texas has failed the 88,000 pregnant teens, their boyfriends and needlessly traumatized  a third of a million parents in Texas, every year for 10 years.
 

ForceChange petition to demand congress end abstinence only programs and  provide more comprehensive sex education programs in America 
 
[1.] source Guttmacher institute
[2,] Current Facts on American Teens Sources of Information about Sex
[3.] Sex Lies and Stereotypes How Abstinence-Only programs Harm Women and Girls

Related articles

• Public Schools criminally incompetent on sex education (ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com)
• USA Number One in Teen Pregnancy (ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com)

USA Number One in Teen Pregnancy

From ForceChange:

As difficult as it may be to believe, the United States has the highest rate in the industrialized Western world of pregnancy and births for girls aged 15-19.  Nearly one-third of all U.S. girls will get pregnant during their teen years, resulting in 750,000 teenage pregnancies per year.  More than two-thirds of these teens will not graduate from high school, resulting in billions of dollars spent on caring for these girls and their children.  In contrast, the amount spent on prevention and education programs is currently in the millions of dollars.
Of even greater concern is the spread of sexually transmitted disease in those aged 15 to 24.  Approximately half of all new HIV infections occur in this age group.  The most effective way of reducing these alarming statistics is education.  We must provide mandatory and ongoing education and support for teens if we are to reverse this trend.

 Our educational system is criminally negligent in failing to educate our youths about sexual reproduction, pregnancy, birth control and STD's.  One in four youths in our country receive ONLY "abstinence only" sex education which is no sex education at all.  There are 4 billion people on this planet attesting to the very strong evolutionary and biological drives to reproduce.  The urge to have sex is very strong and telling our youths to just say NO is not only inadequate, its foolish and even hypocritical.   Look at now resigned in disgrace senator John Ensign who while still married, carried on an affair with a member of his staff, that also happened to be his best friends wife.  Look at senator David Vitter (R-LA) who while married solicited prostitutes while in Washington D.C.  Not a month goes by without a new major sex scandal somewhere in our country.  When senators and presidents can't control their sexual urges, can we reasonably expect immature young people to just say no?  There is no excuse for not fully educating our young people about their sexual drives, when the failure to do so, results in debilitating STD's and early pregnancies that create traumatic strains on individuals, families and our entire society.  As a society, we cannot let religious conservatives apply their dark ages mentality to our modern educational system.  The earth is not flat, and young people WILL have sex, it's up to us, to make sure they understand how to protect themselves from STD's, and unwanted pregnancies.

Here is a petition to the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of HHW to demand we educate our young people about STD's, birth control and pregnancy.  

Target:  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Welfare Kathleen Sebelius
Goal:  Provide mandatory education for teens regarding sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Create support programs for pregnant teens so that they complete their education and provide for the best interests of their babies.

Related articles

• Public Schools criminally incompetent on sex education (ablazeofbrightblue.blogspot.com)
• Planned Parenthood Kicks Off Sex Ed Week of Action (prweb.com)

Public Schools criminally incompetent on sex education

Read this article written by Anna Lekas Miller in the Nation

In Cincinnati, Ohio, a high school sex education teacher carefully places a Jolly Rancher candy on each student’s desk. The 14- and 15-year-old students feel the crinkly plastic wrapping in their hands, wondering when they will get to eat their tantalizing treats.  “Don’t eat the candy!” warned the teacher, although she had just finished placing one on each desk. “You must wait until after class. It will taste much better if you allow yourself to wait.”  And so begins the young Ohioans' lesson on abstinence—the only method of pregnancy or disease prevention that they will learn during their high school sexuality education class.  One in every four adolescents receives this type of abstinence-only sexuality education. According to recent statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, 41 percent of teenagers (regardless of the type of sexuality education they received) know little or nothing about condoms and 75 percent know little or nothing about oral contraception. One in three teenagers claims to have never had any formal education on birth control, suggesting that even those not necessarily enrolled in abstinence only programs are still unable to access critical sexual health information.

I couldn't believe this abstinence only program is being taught in some of our schools.  This is criminally negligent.  Every teen that gets pregnant while going to one of these abstinence only schools should sue the school district.  Any teen that gets a STD while being taught abstinence only should sue the school district.    By a concerted effort of the christian lobby narrow christian views are being taught in our schools.  The federal government has wasted 1.5 billion dollars on these completely ineffectual programs leaving the USA with the highest STD and teen pregnancy rates among industrialized nations.   Don't have sex until your married because we said so!  Don't do drugs because we said so!  Don't question authority, because we said so!   What kind of ignorant sheep are we raising in our public education system?  At least NYC is set to teach some fundamentals to kids.  Its time for the silent majority to start speaking loudly and clearly. 

Sign the petition to Congress to end abstinence only programs (forcechange.org)

Related articles

• NYC to Mandate Sex Ed in Public Schools (abcnews.go.com)

Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: How Abstinence-Only Programs Harm Women and Girls (legalmomentum.org) 

plannedparenthood.org