TEENAGE pregnancies and syphilis rose sharply among the generation of American schoolgirls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically driven education policy, according to the leading US public health body.
In a report that will surprise few of Mr Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) went into reverse 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 rose sharply in more than half of American states after 2005. The number of teenage girls with syphilis had risen by nearly half after a big decrease, while a 20-year fall in the gonorrhea infection rate was being reversed. AIDS cases in adolescent boys had nearly doubled.
According to this report, the CDC says southern states tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs. In addition, about 16,000 pregnancies were reported among girls aged 10-14 in 2004 and a similar number of young people in the age group reported having a sexually transmitted disease.
Said Janet Collins, a CDC director.
It is disheartening that after years of improvement with respect to teen pregnancy and STDs, we now see signs that progress is stalling.
Although the centres do 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 report was alarming and that teenagers needed Medically accurate, age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education.
Bush learns that abstinence programmes don't work
But supporters of abstinence-based education, such as The Silver Ring Thing, said the report showed there was too little, not too much emphasis on discouragement of sex before marriage.
Meanwhile, we learn from the Independent that Muslim fanatic Yusuf Patel, a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist organisation that Tony Blair considered banning in 2005, has established an organisation to oppose sex education for Muslims in British schools.
As Muslims we believe in values. We believe in haraam and halal, but sex and relationship education (SRE) teaching in this country does not provide this. It is the responsibility of parents to see their children educated, but not at the expense of these values.
Patel’s organisation, SREIslamic, was established eight months ago to encourage Muslims to respond to the Government’s consultation about whether to make SRE compulsory and extend it to five-year-olds. Since then, the organisation claims, it has held 40 workshops across the country and collected tens of thousands of signatures from Muslims opposed to the measures.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 am
So, a big clap for Bush.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
It is a fact – ignored by the religious – that keeping sex and reproductive information secret actually increases pregnancies and STD’s. Another fact: the better educated you are the less like you are to be involved in “accidental” pregnancy and/or catch STDs; but the fundies don’t like education – knowledge is power, the power to tell the religious to F off.
The stupid fundies real agenda is, as usual, to keep women ignorant of their own bodies; just look at countries where religion runs things: women forced to breed until their bodies are worn out. And of course, they want to breed lots more fundies like themselves.
July 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I think its more the case of 'bush with the clap'!
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Abstinence isn’t the “bad” word that today’s culture makes it out to be. It’s actually the exact opposite – it’s a positive choice that teens can make to ensure a brighter and healthier future. Teens who choose abstinence don’t have to worry about STD’s or STI’s, and they don’t have to carry the emotional baggage that having sex brings. An abstinent teen can keep a clear mind to help make positive, healthy choices for their future. And most importantly, being abstinent means that you never have to live with regrets.
“Game Plan” is a great abstinence-based curriculum that many schools across the United States are using. To learn more about “Game Plan”, visit http://www.justsayyes.org
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:49 pm
We think we like this 'Just Say Yes' organisation a whole lot better:
http://www.positive.org/JustSayYes/index.html
Why? Because the Coalition for Positive Sexuality says: "Just Say Yes is about having a positive attitude towards sexuality — gay, straight,bisexual or whatever. It's about saying "yes" to sex you do want, and "no" to sex you don't. It says there's nothing wrong with you if you decide to have sex, and nothing wrong with you if you decide not to."
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
But don't forget that gay sex is very wrong because it says so in the bible. But then so is lighting a fire on a Sunday or so much else. However, it is OK to sell your daughter as a slave under certain conditions. One thing you can say about god: he is not the best at clarity of language in giving his orders.
July 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
The human organism evolved with a regular and recurring need for orgasm. Individuals who lack such a need have been seriously shortchanged by nature. Certainly that need can be fulfilled unilaterally. But few would dispute that doing so in the company of a loving partner offers emotional as well as physical fulfilment. Self-inflicted abstinence, when a safe, considerate, non-consequential means of satisfying a natural desire is available, is a sick, repulsive, masochistic perversion. The authors of the Talmud recognized it as such 2,000 years ago when they wrote (Nazir. 19a) that, "Anyone who causes himself anguish by abstinence from something he desires is to be deemed a sinner / disobedient / pervert."
The reason the Catholic church instructs its mindslaves to be fuckless perverts is that it knows they will disobey and will then need to buy forgiveness from a priest. But what excuse do other pushers of teenage celibacy have? Are they sadists who get their jollies savoring the masochism of their victims? (Rhetorical question. Of course they are.)
July 23rd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
BTW: Doesn't the hypothesis that an all-powerful god endowed teenagers with the ability to experience intense pleasure horizontally, and then demanded that they not exercise it, require that the god be a sadist?
July 24th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Alice, reality land may not be as perfect a place as we would like it to be but unfortunately it is compulsory that all of us live there. People like you who fail to understand that cause real people real harm by pretending that there is an alternative. There isn't, and it would be a great help to everyone if you could realise that and grow up.