From: DJ Vollkasko (DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net)
Date: Fri May 07 2004 - 03:10:42 PDT
>Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 22:40:26 -0400
>Subject: Re: [NTLK] [OT] Re: AVIBD MATRIX - Adult Newton Software
>From: Mike Burrell <mburrell_at_stny.rr.com>
>
>on 5/6/04 4:09 AM, DJ Vollkasko at DJ_Vollkasko_at_gmx.net wrote:
>
> > So, yeah, one might say that sexual abstinence leads to higher rates of
> > sexually transmitted diseases and teenager pregnancy.
>
>I can't believe what I'm reading here. I'll also say that I sure don't
>appreciate the cheap jokes regarding my beliefs either.
Dear Mike,
I not sure I was making any cheap jokes regarding your beliefs. That was a
factual statement based on what was circulating only a short while ago in
the media, and I had used it as an example that's somewhat related to the
topic to show that some effects may have different causes than expected and
that well-meant ain't always well done.
In any case, I am sorry if my remarks hurt your feelings. Please also
accept as given that unneccessary health risks to teenagers isn't something
I would make jokes about.
There are a lot of education programmes for US-teenagers that have been
stopped and had their funding cut, thus leaving them without information on
how to protect them and what really can happen.
Instead of these programmes abstinence-promoting programmes are now being
funded (a lot of them with public vows and labelled "faith-based") with
serious amounts of federal money, which do not educate the teenagers about
the risks and protections.
As a result the rate of unplanned pregnancies (about one million teenage
girls get pregnant in the US per year - 78% have unwanted pregnancies, 75%
of them become unmarried mothers and 25% of these births are not
first-births, showing that familiy planning know-how doesn't reach these
kids -- and that's too many individual tragedies to make fun of) and
infections with sexually transmitted diseases is higher with formerly
abstinent kids due to lack of protection (which is caused by lack of
education - as one result many teens seem to believe oral sex not to be sex
and also to be "save" - well, it's still a source of STDs), while as a
general trend, the rate of teenage pregnancies *had* declined during the
Nineties.
I do not think that's funny, and I do not think that the people who are
responsible for stopping the education programmes honestly know what they
are doing. They promote some very strange things, such as recommending with
all honesty reading the Scripture against PMS, and I don't think that's
funny, either.
Abstinence is fine with me, if it's a voluntary decision. Why can they
promote educated abstinence? Keeping kids uneducated and knowingly putting
them in danger, however, is quite a different matter.
So, please accept my public apologies if my initial posting here at NTLK
has been leading you to feel I was making fun of you because you have
beliefs. Well, I have beliefs, too, for that matter, that's why I have
explained my case in good faith so you can see what I was referring to. Be
assured it's not a personal matter with you, and with this I think the
whole case should rest in peace.
Should you not share this feeling, please contact me off-list; I think
after my apology for any misunderstanding I may have caused the list has
seen sufficient of this.
Sincerely,
D. Vollkasko
Sources:
Bush's Abstinence-Only Program Funding Leads to Debate Over Best Approach
to Sex Education, Chicago Tribune Reports (2001,
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_repro_recent_reports.cfm?dr_DateTime=14-Aug-01&show=yes#6376
Oppose Dangerous, Unproven Abstinence-Unless-Married Education
Programs (March 2003
http://www.nfprha.org/pac/factsheets/absunlessmarried.asp)
Chastity pressed on US teens (9/2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3117108.stm)
Understanding 'Abstinence': Implications for Individuals, Programs and
Policies (12/2003, http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/gr060504.pdf)
AIDS AND OTHER SEXUALLY
TRANSMITTED DISEASES:
PREVENTION AND SERVICES
(http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk1/1991/9103/910313.PDF)
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