While it does make him a more fun-sounding governor than he really is, the following headline from the web site The Governor's Journal headline - aka GoJo - seems a bit misleading. I have to give the governor a round of applause, a sustained standing ovation, for having the necessary moral courage to take a stand on what is really
ignorance only sex eduction.
The governor has taken a stand which does NOT put religion above the interests of education and public health. Abstinence is essentially a religious position, not a moral or legal one. As such it is one that like contraception is largely ignored in our modern society. We have come to recognize that the notion of sex ONLY within the bounds of marriage is not realistic, not necessary, and not desirable. We recognize that sex is NOT only about reproduction, NOT only for having children. It is about the expression and bonding through physical intimacy that is an important part of our emotional, psychological and physical lives, and which should be exercised responsibly - but not necessarily limited to marriage.
If we strictly restricted sex to marriage, our lives would be the poorer for it. According to the 2000 Census:
Among the 221.1 million people aged 15 and over in the United States in 2000:
• 120.2 million, or 54.4 percent, were now married;
• 41.0 million, or 18.5 percent, were widowed, divorced or separated; and
• 59.9 million, or 27.1 percent, were never married.
Using those numbers, 100.9 million people, or 45.6% are at some point in time, possibly for their whole lives, not in a marriage. Our lives, in part because of our greater longevity, in part for other reasons, is no longer fitting into the pattern where a majority of people are married their entire adult lives. The choice to believe that sex outside of that narrow relationship is always a sin is a matter of individual faith, it is not a moral absolute or ethical certainty. Rather we can choose how we conduct ourselves in our intimate relationships with love and with respect. Marriage is a legal contract; it can when chosen as such be a religious commitment.
But to impose that BELIEF, that RELIGIOUS BELIEF, as a calculated pattern of ignorance is wrong. It is dangerous. It is nothing more or less than a war on human sexuality. Ignorance does not stop people from having sex, it causes them to contract and expose each other to disease and unplanned pregnancy. Ignorance, not sex, is what is dangerous, and costly, and burdensome to our society.
There is absolutely NO legitimate justification for making the teaching of human biology, including human sexuality, and topics like contraception, in a modern world. Trying to make it a taboo, to ban it, is guaranteed to make people stupid, ignorant, and poor citizens. It denies people choices, it denies people informed control over their lives.
Abstinence is a choice that each of us must make for ourselves, not have the paternalistic nanny state of conservatives impose it on us, and least of all on vulnerable children who need to learn in order to be equipped to participate in a modern world. The conservatives in our country fear they cannot persuade, so they use ignorance, and misinformation to try to control people - and they do it badly. They do it in a way that harms people bodies and their minds and their hearts. They do it in a way that destroys lives. That is not what religion should do, and it is most certainly not what 'Ignorance Only' education should do.
Ignorance only sex education is opposed by every major medical and psychological professional organization in the United States. From the
Sex Ed in the U.S. article on Wikipedia (as always, emphasis added is mine - DG)
These people on the right who keep passing abstinence only / ignorance only sex education legislation believe that we need values taught in conjunction with education about our bodies and our sexuality and our choices. There is nothing about ignorance that does that. There is nothing about comprehensive, medically accurate sexual education which precludes that. But it is time and past time that we promote the religious views in schools regarding abstinence.
Criticism of abstinence-only sex education by the scientific and medical communities
Abstinence-only education has been criticized in official statements by the American Psychological Association,[16] the American Medical Association,[48] the National Association of School Psychologists,[18] the Society for Adolescent Medicine,[21] the American College Health Association,[21] the American Academy of Pediatrics,[19] and the American Public Health Association,[20] which all maintain that sex education needs to be comprehensive to be effective.
The AMA "urges schools to implement comprehensive... sexuality education programs that... include an integrated strategy for making condoms available to students and for providing both factual information and skill-building related to reproductive biology, sexual abstinence, sexual responsibility, contraceptives including condoms, alternatives in birth control, and other issues aimed at prevention of pregnancy and sexual transmission of diseases... [and] opposes the sole use of abstinence-only education..."[48]
The American Academy of Pediatrics states that "Abstinence-only programs have not demonstrated successful outcomes with regard to delayed initiation of sexual activity or use of safer sex practices... Programs that encourage abstinence as the best option for adolescents, but offer a discussion of HIV prevention and contraception as the best approach for adolescents who are sexually active, have been shown to delay the initiation of sexual activity and increase the proportion of sexually active adolescents who reported using birth control."[19]
On August 4, 2007, the British Medical Journal published an editorial concluding that there is "no evidence" that abstinence-only sex education programs "reduce risky sexual behaviours, incidence of sexually transmitted infections, or pregnancy" in "high income countries".[49]
A comprehensive review of 115 program evaluations published in November 2007 by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found that two-thirds of sex education programs focusing on both abstinence and contraception had a positive effect on teen sexual behavior. The same study found no strong evidence that abstinence-only programs delayed the initiation of sex, hastened the return to abstinence, or reduced the number of sexual partners.[50][51] According to the study authorJoycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States, is a notable critic of abstinence-only sex education. She was among the interviewees Penn & Teller included in their Bullshit! episode on the subject.[52]
:"Even though there does not exist strong evidence that any particular abstinence program is effective at delaying sex or reducing sexual behavior, one should not conclude that all abstinence programs are ineffective. After all, programs are diverse, fewer than 10 rigorous studies of these programs have been carried out, and studies of two programs have provided modestly encouraging results. In sum, studies of abstinence programs have not produced sufficient evidence to justify their widespread dissemination."
Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that abstinence-only sex education leads to the opposite of the intended results by spreading ignorance regarding sexually transmitted diseases and the proper use of contraceptives to prevent both infections and pregnancy.[53]
In July 2009, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their analysis of national data collected between 2002 and 2007. Their findings included:[54]
“ This report identifies a number of concerns regarding the sexual and reproductive health of our nation's young people... It is disheartening that after years of improvement with respect to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, we now see signs that progress is stalling and many of these trends are going in the wrong direction ”
— Janet Collins, director of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, July 17
Birth rates among U.S. teens had increased in 2006 and 2007, following large declines from 1991 to 2005.
About one-third of adolescents had not received instructions on methods of birth control before age 18.
In 2004, there were about 745,000 pregnancies among females younger than 20, including an estimated 16,000 pregnancies among girls between 10 and 14.
In 2006, about one million young people aged 10 to 24 were reported to have chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis. Nearly one-quarter of females aged 15 to 19, and 45% of females aged 20 to 24, had a human papillomavirus infection during 2003 and 2004.
In 2006, the majority of new diagnoses of HIV infection among young people occurred among males and those aged 20 to 24.
From 2004 to 2006, about 100,000 females aged 10 to 24 visited a hospital emergency department for nonfatal sexual assault, including 30,000 females aged 10 to 14.
Hispanic teens aged 15 to 19 are much more likely to become pregnant (132.8 births per 1,000 females) than non-Hispanic blacks (128 per 1,000) and non-Hispanic whites (45.2 per 1,000)
Non-Hispanic black youth in all age groups have the highest rates of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses.
We need to take back this country from the bad decisions, the failed philosophy, of conservatives, of religious right extremists, who make culture war on women, on education, on science. We cannot allow people who believe that ignorance is a good idea for our schools because of their faith choices to prevail. If we do not succeed in removing these people from control of curricula and from control of funding, we will become backward, we will return to dark ages of millenia past. These people are wrong and they are harmful. Even the more sane among their own, like this governor in Utah, are beginning to recognize the perils of their extremism."Herbert Vetoes Abstinence"
By GoJo Staff on March 17, 2012
Utah Governor Gary Herbert(R) has vetoed a bill that would have severely restricted sex education in public schools.
The bill would have required educators to teach abstinence only and would forbid instruction on contraception and other matters related to human sexuality.
Herbert said the bill went too far and denied parents the right to choose how their children receive information about sex. Herbert was praised by Democrats for vetoing the legislation, but criticized for doing it after hours, on a Friday night.
Abstinence is a choice, based on a belief one decides to embrace. Each of us is free to make a different choice, to embrace a different belief. That choice should not be made for other people by the religious right. We are not a theocracy, they should not be emulating the Taliban.This is the religious right, this time in Utah, demonstrating again how they wish to be the American equivalent of the Taliban. The Taliban destroys schools, keeps girls and women ignorant to control them, and restricts education to religious approved education for boys. Like the Taliban, the religious right wants to control people by keeping them stupid, by denying them education and by impairing their ability to decide their lives for themselves. This is a narrow slice of that same pie in Utah. Hoorah! for the governor for sending that back to them on a plate.
