Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
Claim: Despite Government Spending, Teens Still Having Sex
Via the Associated Press, a chilling report suggests that, despite the best efforts of the moral scolds in the Bush administration, teens are still going at it, despite a massive increase in spending on "abstinence education" programs. Why one needs to waste even more money studying the blindingly obvious is unclear, but the AP has all the sordid details:
Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of mil lions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies.
"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.
The report, which was based on a review of research into teenager sexual behavior, was being released Wednesday by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Over at the Huffington Post, James Wagoner attacks the Democrats for endorsing a "record $141 million dollar budget for community-based abstinence-only-until-marriage programs which prohibit information about condoms and birth control," and is shocked to learn "that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signed off on the funding increase." Yes, shocking.
|11.8.07 @ 12:37PM|#
When they're done trying to get young people to stop having sex, maybe they should try to get the birds to stop flying south for the winter.
Tacos mmm...|11.8.07 @ 12:38PM|#
We should also probably make the bears wear diapers, just to keep the woods clean.
|11.8.07 @ 12:40PM|#
I was thinking this might be an example of an issue where it
really might make a difference if people thought of evolution as
more than just a theory.
...nah! Even fundies know that high school age kids can't keep
their hands of each other.
|11.8.07 @ 12:41PM|#
Hasn't the government spent a lot on teaching teenagers to use birth control? Given that the illegitmacy rate is pushing 40%, seems like that's not having much effect either.
|11.8.07 @ 12:43PM|#
I love that line "hastens the return to abstinence."
I am pretty abstinent between the times I am getting laid. In fact,
as soon as the sex stops, the abstinence starts...very hasty
indeed.
|11.8.07 @ 12:43PM|#
When they're done trying to get young people to stop having
sex, maybe they should try to get the birds to stop flying south
for the winter.
You've uncovered the secret government plot behind global
warming...if men in black suits show up at your house....run!
Mad Max|11.8.07 @ 12:43PM|#
It seems that federal spending doesn't result in public-school
students knowing and practicing the virtues of abstinence.
It would be better to spend all this federal taxpayer money on math
and science education, because we all know that the public schools
do such a wonderful job teaching math and science.
|11.8.07 @ 12:44PM|#
We already know that there is no correlation between spending on education and educational outcomes...why would the subject of sex ed be any different?
Jozef|11.8.07 @ 12:47PM|#
Meanwhile, AJC reports (http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2007/11/07/teensex_1108.html) that Genarlow Wilson's case has raised the awareness of teen sex among parents, some of whom now consider talking to their kids about early sex. Clearly, this is the way to go: lock up a few kids caught having sex, and parents will police their children better.
|11.8.07 @ 12:47PM|#
I blame the Discovery Channel and the Bloodhound Gang.
"You and me aint nuthin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel"
stephen the goldberger|11.8.07 @ 12:47PM|#
The gov't certainly was sucessful in getting girls to not have sex with me when I was a teenager. At least, I tell myself that they were.
Lord Jubjub|11.8.07 @ 12:48PM|#
What illegitimacy rate? Sex among unmarried adults is likely to
be much higher than sex among teenagers.
Speaking of which, is King Canute an adviser to the
administration?
|11.8.07 @ 12:52PM|#
Lemmee get this straight -- we have a program where the
government preaches abstinence, but on the off chance you should
let your guard down and get pregnant, we have another program where
the government will send you a check every month.
Yeah, they're getting the message.
Elemenope|11.8.07 @ 12:57PM|#
Stop me if I'm wrong, but IIRC, King Canute did his "hold back the waters" routine deliberately to demonstrate the futility of applying royal (i.e. government) power to natural forces.
|11.8.07 @ 1:10PM|#
J sub D --
You mean there are chillun who don't already have health
insurance?
WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE DO SOMETHING FOR THEM???
|11.8.07 @ 1:11PM|#
Creepiest abstinence movement thing? Purity Balls.
Go ahead a click on the link for Generations of Light Purity Ball
at the bottom of the Wiki page. I double dare you. Ewwww!
|11.8.07 @ 1:18PM|#
What we need is a war on sex. Look how well it's worked for drugs, terror, cancer, poverty, porn...
Teacher/Pedophile|11.8.07 @ 1:34PM|#
Heck, if I can't keep my hands off the high school kids, how are high school kids gonna keep their hands off high school kids?
The Wine Commonsewer|11.8.07 @ 1:43PM|#
Yep, and despite the best efforts of the sex education crowd, they're (the girls at least) still getting PG. Guess that nannying isn't effective at either end.
The Wine Commonsewer|11.8.07 @ 1:45PM|#
....for prom night.
Got a good buddy who was a prom night baby. :-)
Latour|11.8.07 @ 1:54PM|#
Have you noticed, that people are still having sex? http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZP05N_bZ60Y
|11.8.07 @ 1:59PM|#
At least we won the War on Education. Now not one child has been left behind. Rather, all have.
LarryA|11.8.07 @ 2:05PM|#
We already know that there is no correlation between
spending on education and educational outcomes...why would the
subject of sex ed be any different?
Actually there is a huge correlation, unintentional and in the
wrong direction.
Back when most kids finished their education with the eighth grade
they got married soon thereafter. As a result the wait between
puberty and the wedding night was a matter of months.
With earlier puberty and the emerging "everyone should go to
college" trend the abstinence-only folks now expect young people to
stay virginal for more than a decade.
Talk about a tightly-wrapped generation.
|11.8.07 @ 2:20PM|#
The answer is to force kids to marry as soon as they reach puberty. That will minimize their sexual activity.
T|11.8.07 @ 2:23PM|#
Talk about a tightly-wrapped generation.
Apparently not if they're getting pregnant. Something ain't
wrapped.
Jozef|11.8.07 @ 2:32PM|#
At least we won the War on Education. Now not one child has
been left behind. Rather, all have.
I agree. Being left behind implies someone's ahead, so the
government made sure that wasn't the case anymore.
|11.8.07 @ 2:34PM|#
It is impossible to convey what I have seen in their sweet
spirits, their delicate, forming souls, as their daddy takes them
out for their first, big dance.
I hate context, because it makes things like this way less
funny.
Abdul|11.8.07 @ 2:34PM|#
Wow, de stijl, Purity Balls are as creepy as My Super Sweet Sixteen, but in a totally different way.
|11.8.07 @ 2:43PM|#
Funny.
Whenever I tell a teenager what they should be doing, they usually
go right out and do it.
Strange it wouldn't work with sex like that.
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 2:54PM|#
My momma talkin' to me tryin' to tell me how to live
But I don't listen to her 'cause my head is like a sieve
My daddy, he disowned me 'cause I wear my sister's clothes
He caught me in the bathroom with a pair of pantyhose
My basketball coach, he done kicked me off the team
For wearin' high-heel sneakers and actin' like a queen
The world's comin' to an end, I don't even care
As long as I can have a limo and my orange hair
And it don't bother me if people think I'm "funny"
'Cause I'm a big rock star and I'm makin' lots of money
money, money, money, money, money, money
Ahhh! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
I'm so bloody rich! Ha ha ha ha
I own apartment buildings and shopping centers! Ha ha ha ha
And I only know three chords! Ha ha ha ha
Watch me burn, you fools!!!!!!
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 2:58PM|#
STOP TELLING ME HOW TO LIVE
STOP TELLING YOU HOW TO LIVE
STOP TELLING HIM HOW TO LIVE
STOP TELLING HER HOW TO LIVE
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 2:59PM|#
How can a Priest that jerks off with little boys tell anyone to abstain from sex?
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 2:59PM|#
How can a Congressman that plays Beef-Jerky in public restrooms tell anyone to abstain from sex...
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 3:00PM|#
It's the Right Facist Wing of the Republican Party i tell u....and it's not much of a Party that I want 2 b a part of.
Alice Bowie|11.8.07 @ 3:02PM|#
Simple Solution
We need the It's None of Your Business
Amendment
For example, it's none of ur business that:
1. I have sex
2. I have sex with Men
3. I take drugs
4. I watch Port
5. I got an abortion
6. I burn flags
|11.8.07 @ 3:05PM|#
Purity Balls are the result of baptizing one's genitals in holy water. A little known sacrament.
|11.8.07 @ 3:18PM|#
Some one should make a bumper sticker that says, I did your daughter at the Purity Ball.
Librarian|11.8.07 @ 3:35PM|#
TrickyVic
not a bumper sticker, a t-shirt. Honest to god it would be an
instant cult classic. But have them made in baby ts for girls too,
cuz you just never know.
|11.8.07 @ 3:37PM|#
James Wagoner ... is shocked to learn "that House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) signed off on the funding increase."
Silly man- does he think the Speaker of the House has some sort of
line-item veto power?
daveylee|11.8.07 @ 3:44PM|#
"TrickyVic | November 8, 2007, 3:18pm | #
Some one should make a bumper sticker that says, I did your
daughter at the Purity Ball."
Then go around to your local Evangelical Mega-Churches and stick
them on all the cars.
Too funny!!!
|11.8.07 @ 6:01PM|#
Sigh...
During my days as a hard-core, conservative Catholic teenager, I
was a prime example of everything the right wing bible-beaters
would have wanted in a teenager: I never had sex as a teen nor did
I even date. I spurned the evil sexual imagery that I was told
permeates society. I even called a classmate a "whore" in a health
class because she said that there was nothing immoral about
pre-martial sex.
Now, I'm 33 and still technically a virgin, but not by choice.
Thanks to my anti-sex upbringing, I never learned how to associate
with women. In point of fact, they scare me to death and my fear of
rejection makes it all but impossible to seek out female
companionship. (That and being fat, butt-ugly, poor, and bipolar
doesn't help either.)
So teens of America. Take my advice: Don't become like me. If you
have the opportunity to fuck someone you love or even just like for
the time being, DO IT!!!!
|11.8.07 @ 7:33PM|#
This would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic. I could have
told them that for 1/2 the price. As a woman that got pregnant at
the ripe age of 14 I could have told them their money would be much
better spent on educating the very young.
Young children and teens "ARE GOING TO HAVE SEX" and the best thing
you can do is try to convince them to use protection and to put a
serious sex education program as mandatory in ALL schools to give
them as much information as possible. Also, how about programs for
the one's that didn't get it, to give them all the help they need
to have a healthy and happy baby and how to take care for that baby
long term if they choose not to have an abortion.
The sex education program I had in the early 60's was a
joke,parents didn't discuss sex and not much has changed. These
fools should be held accountable for such outrageous spending and
that's asuming they really did spend it on this research.
How many births could we have possibly prevented by education for
141 million????
|11.8.07 @ 10:02PM|#
So, abstinence education programs have produced as much in the
way of desired outcomes as embryonic stem cell research.
But I have a feeling a majority of the folks in these parts think
funding the latter is A-OK.
|11.9.07 @ 12:03AM|#
Sigh...what a waste of money. Those neocon, fundeMENTAL,
nanny-state perverts have got it all wrong. Der Gummint should be
spending our money on GENE MANIPULATION. Simply a tweak here and a
tweak there and guys will be born with GIANT SCHLONGS. Then they
can simply SUCK THEMSELVES OFF when they get the urge. Gals can get
genes that give them GIANT CARNIVORE TEETH in their tushies as
well. That way no-one with a GIANT MEATBAT can ravish them...e
voila! No more NASTY, filthy, consensual horizontal Mambo dancing.
Heck I'd rather be anally pumped by a nationally famous TV
evangelist anyway...
"Bain the size of a PLANET and here I am, sweeping out a
spaceship..."
|11.9.07 @ 1:23AM|#
"Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues
like we play, he's in high school. When he starts playing jazz it's
like going on to college, to a school of higher learning."
- B. B. King
High school sounds like a good place to start...
jood|11.9.07 @ 4:14AM|#
who care or give a dind ong,just use CONDOMS and PLAN B PILLS,pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee all kids here and there with out wed lock,social security system is all screwd up and crime rate so high,so fook any thing you want to,just use condosm and plan b pills,specially you GREAT MEN ,out there lol KEEP PLAN B PILLS in your pockets insted of condoms and use give them to your 10 girlfriends before you bang them,
misti|11.9.07 @ 10:25AM|#
it iz all true but if u love someone .. and u are with them all the time n u kno they love why use a condom it takes all the good feeln out?
|11.9.07 @ 1:14PM|#
my fear of rejection makes it all but impossible to seek out female companionship
Don't worry. Charles Bukowski never had sex when he was a teenager,
either. In fact, if hookers don't count...
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245