Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sex Education in Schools--effective at what????

Back in 2007, the late great Mahatma Basmati began one of the most intense threads in the history of the Citizen blogs regarding the absolute failure of Abstinence ONLY sex education in America. The link is HERE

At that time, the state of Massachusetts decided to forego millions of dollars in Federal sex education money, because big-government social conservatives placed language in the legislation that forced school systems to adopt an Abstinence based curriculum.

We now have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we now know the results of that controversial decision as the CDC today released data detailing teenage birth rates by state within the United States for the year 2008 (latest year available).

The results were unequivocal: Abstinence ONLY education does not work, and Abstinence centered sex education is not nearly as effective as comprehensive sex education.

The results of live births for white women for selected states in 2008:

United States Average-27.2 of every 1000 white teens gives birth
Massachusetts-Comprehensive Sex Education-13.7 of every 1000 white teens gives birth
Georgia-Combination Abstinence ONLY and Abstinence Based Sex Education-38.5 of every 1000 white teens gives birth
Tennessee-Abstinence ONLY Sex Education-45.2 of every 1000 white teens gives birth
The results of live births for black women for selected states in 2008:

United States Average-64.2 of every 1000 black teens gives birth
Massachusetts-Comprehensive Sex Education-39.4 of every 1000 black teens gives birth
Georgia-Combination Abstinence ONLY and Abstinence Based Sex Education-66.7 of every 1000 black teens gives birth
Tennessee-Abstinence ONLY Sex Education-77.7 of every 1000 black teens gives birth
The results of live births for hispanic women for selected states in 2008:

United States Average-81.8 of every 1000 hispanic teens gives birth
Massachusetts-Comprehensive Sex Education-71.2 of every 1000 hispanic teens gives birth
Georgia-Combination Abstinence ONLY and Abstinence Based Sex Education-139.6 of every 1000 hispanic teens gives birth
Tennessee-Abstinence ONLY Sex Education-174.8 of every 1000 hispanic teens gives birth
The link to the CDC report is HERE (PDF file, adobe reader required)

It's a shame that the ardent "abstinence only" crew of Denise Connor, BPR, Retd Army MAJ, Paul Perkins and PentaPenguin no longer post here.

Abstinence ONLY sex education does not work.
Abstinence BASED sex education appears to be inferior to comprehensive sex education.

Listen to Sarah and she will tell, how Paul Revere rang his mighty bell.
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