Post from Kay Steiger's Blog:
Abstinence Funds? No Thanks, Says New York.
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According to Kaiser Network, New York has joined a list of 11 states to refuse federal abstinence-only education funds in the last few years. The state will reject about $3.5 million this year in favor of teaching comprehensive sex ed. This shows that states are actually deciding that abstenence-only education is doing more harm than good, so it's not worth it to accept the funding.

The article highlighted this gem from Leslie Unruh, who tried so hard to keep the South Dakota abortion ban in effect, "A lot of kids that are abstaining are made to feel as if they are from a Victorian age and they are not with the 'Sex and the City' crowd."


Reader Comments

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Sorry, Leslie...
By MarshallDog Sep 21st 2007 at 12:16 pm EDT
No matter how hard you try, you'll never succeed in making not having sex as cool and fun as having sex.
Re: Sorry, Leslie...
By Superduperficial Sep 22nd 2007 at 4:19 pm EDT
Agreed. The last great attempt to make abstinence cool was Jermaine Stewart back in the 80s - with an honorable mention to Canadian power-pop duo Prozzak's "I'd Rather Sleep With Myself Tonight" in the late 90s.

But then again, both of these arguments for not hopping into the sack hinged on the world-weariness of their male protagonists -- they could turn down sex, because they'd been there, done that (and done that and done that), and were unimpressed by one more offer.

If this were extended into public policy, the best force for general abstinence could be "professional de-virginifiers"; a special form of prostitute catering only to the randy 14-16 year old boy crowd. Get the boys worn out on sex, with cougars who'd be far more talented than any girl the boys actually have a shot with, and you'd probably drop the teen pregnancy and STD rates like a stone.

Odds that this would ever happen: zero. But hey, thinking outside the box, at least.
  
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