President Bush has
pushed to fund abstinence-only sex education, saying that it is the only
"surefire" way to prevent unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted
diseases, and immoral, nasty, hot teen sex.
Abstinence, of course, does prevent all of these terrible things. Abstinence education, however, does not.
-Al
Franken, from Lies...pg.
283
If Al Franken was
Pinocchio, his nose would make enough firewood to heat the state of Texas. All
jokes aside, some of the biggest lies in the history of American political commentary
can be found in chapter 33 of Al's book by the same name. The chapter is called
Abstinence Heroes, and just reading it turned my stomach. Let's examine it,
shall we?
First, I want to
observe his bogus letter to John Ashcroft, in which he masquerades as a Harvard
student wanting to get inspirational abstinence stories from public figures.
Obviously the letter is a con, as Al unashamedly admits, and so is every
statement therein. In the next chapter, he lists twenty-seven other public
figures to whom he allegedly sent similar letters, including George W. Bush,
Newt Gingrich, Condi Rice and Sean Hannity.
Not only does Al
express his opposition to the funding of abstinence education, but he goes so
far as to mock those with the integrity to admit having remained abstinent
until marriage. Evidently, the man is intimidated by people of character. That
shouldn't surprise anyone, considering that Al has no moral qualms about
demeaning people who lie while openly deceiving some of the highest-ranking
officials in the country. But Al Franken doesn't hold himself to the same level
of accountability as those whom he judges. In the introduction of Lies, he
states, "Thanks to TeamFranken, you can rest assured that almost every
fact in this book is correct. Either that, or it's a joke. If you think you've
found something that rings untrue, you've probably just missed a hilarious
joke, and should blame yourself rather than me or TeamFranken." In a
recent interview, he defended his tasteless letter-writing act by simply
calling it a "prank." Well, a lie is a lie, no matter how you
gift-wrap it.
The biggest
absurdity of all, though, is the way in which he downplays abstinence
education. He cites a Northern Kentucky University study in which it was
concluded that "61 percent of college undergraduates who had taken
virginity pledges broke them-and were less likely to use condoms when they had
sex for the first time than were those students who had never taken the pledge in
the first place" (Lies...pg. 284). There are so many problems with this argument, I don't
know where to begin.
First of all, he starts by talking about abstinence-only programs, but as soon as his attention shifts to the Kentucky study, he replaces "abstinence-only programs" with "virginity pledges." Where did that come from? A virginity pledge is something you make in a youth group, not as a result of government funding, and it has nothing to do with abstinence-only education. The president isn't advocating government-funded "True Love Waits" Ceremonies! He is advocating the kind of sex education that emphasizes the dangers of relying on drugstore contraception.
"What
dangers?" you ask? Let's take a look.
Dr. James Dobson
(a victim of one of Al Franken's mock letters), founder of Focus on the Family,
responds in this way to Al Franken's notion of including contraception
awareness in sex education:
"By recommending condom usage to teenagers, we inevitably convey five dangerous ideas: (1) that "safe sex" is achievable; (2) that everybody is doing it; (3) that responsible adults expect them to do it; (4) that it's a good thing; and (5) that their peers know they know these things, breeding promiscuity. Those are very destructive messages to give our kids."
-Dr.
James Dobson, from family.org
And Dr. Dobson, a
man for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration, is not simply blowing
smoke here. Let's take a look at the statistics that Mr. Franken doesn't want
you to see:
1) Since 1970 (the year when Planned
Parenthood and other such programs became popular), unwed pregnancies have
increased 87 percent among 15 to 19-year-olds.
2) Likewise, abortions among teens have risen
67 percent.
3) Unwed births went up 83.8 percent.
4) Condoms fail to prevent the spread of venereal
diseases as much as 50 percent of the time, and are completely useless against
those diseases transmitted from areas not covered.
5) More than 500,000 cases of Herpes occur
annually.
6) The number of reported cases of Chlamydia
has risen 281 percent since 1987, forty-six percent of those cases occurring in
teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19.
7) There are over 24 million cases of HPV in
the United States, with a higher prevalence among teens.
The above statistics
were taken from family.org, and were the results gathered from the Family
Research Council, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the
National Center for Health Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control, USA
Today, Reuters News Service and Focus on the Family.
As Mr. Dobson
states ever so eloquently, "...we have a medical disaster on our
hands."
An August 27th
Newswire article quotes Family Research Council policy analyst Bridget Maher in
saying the following: "In claiming that studies do not prove abstinence
education to be effective, and by stating that pro-abstinence conservatives are
lying when they speak of the abstinence education success rate, Mr. Franken has
shown his disdain not only for conservatives, but also for the truth."
The article goes
on to state that the National Center to Prevent Teen Pregnancy released a
comprehensive study at the end of 1990's, indicating that abstinence was
rising, condom-use was plummeting, and public support for abstinence education
was growing. The article also cites a study from the Adolescent & Family
Health journal, which found that the decrease in teen birth rates was the
result of an increase in abstinent teens.
Wow, it would
appear that Al's whole asinine argument has fallen apart at the seams. But why?
If I may quote Dr. Dobson just one more time:
"I should
add that, despite the popular myth to the contrary, teens can understand,
accept and implement the abstinence message. It's not true that young people
are sexual robots, hopelessly incapable of controlling their own behavior. As a
matter of fact, almost 50 percent of all high school students are virgins
today, even though hardly anybody has told them it is a good thing. These kids
desperately need to be affirmed in their decision and held up as positive
examples for others. None of this will be accomplished by pushing
condoms."
Are you listening,
Al?