Monday June 4, 2012, 4:20 pm
(Harry Cabluck / AP Photo)


Fact: Texas refuses to accept federal funding for sex education programs that teach kids how to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases with tactics other than celibacy. The reason, according to a spokeswoman for State Health Services, is that its “first choice is that teens chose not to have sex.”

And....Quite a bit of the information Texas students are getting seems to have arrived from another era. An abstinence-only program used in three districts assures them that “if a woman is dry, the sperm will die”—which harks back to Colonial-era theories that it was impossible for a woman to get pregnant unless she enjoyed the sex. There are repeated suggestions that premarital sex could have fatal consequences—reminiscent of the 1950s’ legends about couples who had illicit sex in the backseat of a car and then were murdered by the Lovers' Lane Maniac. (A video used in three Texas districts has a boy asking an evangelical educator what will happen if he has sex before marriage. “Well, I guess you’ll have to be prepared to die,” is the response.)

Continues...The state has the third highest rate of teenage births in the country, and the second highest rate of repeat births to teenage girls. Sixty-three out of every 1,000 girls between 15 and 19 years old becomes a mother. That compares to 5 out of 1,000 in the Netherlands, and 42 in the United States as a whole. Texas is also well ahead of Rwanda (44), Micronesia (51), and Egypt (50).
It doesn't have to be that way. Back in 1992, California’s teen birth rate was about the same as that of Texas—74 births for every 1,000 women between 15 and 19, while Texas had 79. Then California committed to do something about the situation. California refused to take any money for abstinence-only education. It requires all of its public middle and high schools to teach HIV/AIDS prevention, in a way that stresses the superiority of the abstinence option while also giving kids all the facts about the importance of using condoms if one decides to be sexually active.
We know the consequences of a large number of teenage births. The young mother is more likely to drop out of school, live in poverty, and remain a single parent. The children themselves are more likely to experience abuse or neglect, end up in foster care, and, if they’re male, end up in prison.
Still, if you didn't know better, you’d think there was a concerted effort going on in Texas to increase the number of children being born to teen parents. The state is also one of the most restrictive in the country when it comes to teen access to birth control. Even if a teenage girl has already given birth, she can’t get state-funded contraception services without a parent’s consent. In 2012, family-planning providers in Texas—a state with nearly five and a half million women of reproductive age—were receiving less than $13 million in government aid. One inevitable result is a huge number of poor women giving birth. Texas has the second-highest birth rate in the country after Utah, and nearly 60 percent of the women giving birth are low-income enough to qualify for Medicaid.
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Review of the Book by Gail Collins, "As Texas Goes..."

Full article at Visit Site.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 4:58 am
Noted.Thanks Kit for shedding the light of teenagers pregnancy problem .It is not only Texas that suffers from this problems,the whole nation does.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 5:19 am
The whole world does Thanks Kit

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 11:52 am

The young developing body tells them - through release of chemicals to have sex, and society is shouting "no." Honesty through sexual education help build trust and the comfort of knowing that questions can be asked and answers given, honest answers. It's a sad commentary when a young man asked his college professor when he should be checked for cervical cancer, and he was asking about his neck.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 3:35 pm
...unbelievable. It is year 2012, not 1220 . But well, "as Texas goes".. (ever thought of relocating?)

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 4:27 pm

Nah, I'm stuck in Texas.

**I just noticed an error in my comment above - "he was not asking about his neck...."

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 7:53 pm
Personally, I'm not all that against teenage pregnancy and State support for single mothers, but I am very against unwanted pregnancies due to lack of education and contraception access. This doesn't only affect teenagers, but these teenagers will grow into adults with no idea of sex education and how to use contraception effectively. The teenage birth rate is only the tip of the iceberg. On top of that there are consequences of unwanted pregnancy at any age, such as neglect, lack of bonding, mothers feeling trapped by a situation they never wanted to be in, higher rates of abortion and on and on it goes. The problems caused by these policies run deep and affect entire lives for all, not just teenagers BUT teenagers facing unwanted pregnancies - many of which are preventable - is particularly tragic.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 9:26 pm
One major flaw with abstinence-only sex education (aside from the fact that it doesn't seem to work very well) is that education is supposed to prepare people for life.

Think about all that stuff teachers tried to cram into your brain KG-12--like coloring within the lines, math, spelling, history, Latin verb declensions, or metal shop techniques. Some of it stuck with you no matter how hard you tried to forget it.

The need to prevent pregnancy or the spread of STDs doesn't magically end when you pick up a high school diploma (or, for that matter, a PhD)..

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 9:27 pm
It's unrealistic in today's society, but if only these kids would wait. They'd be much happier for it later on.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 10:07 pm
Just like Texas- keep doing what doesn't work and then deny there is a problem.

Tuesday June 5, 2012, 10:46 pm
Bury your head in the Texas sand and hope your stupidity goes away. Sad. God did not tell you to do this Texas.

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 6:15 am

Now Kit, you already know that under the republican leadership here in Texas, we are one of the most advanced states in everything to do with education. Take the following example of our educational forte even out in the boonies, “Im ah gonna, hes ah gonna, shes ah gonna, and we all ah gonna,” lol! Texas rules! So why do you expect it to be any different with sex education in our schools?

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 6:16 am
Abstinence Sex Education...??? -Give me a break!

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 6:34 am
We also need to address how teens should deal with all of the young girls trying to get themselves pregnant in order to catch a guy, and also all of the male scalawags out there who promise the young ladies that if they give in, they will be sure to marry them, yea right! Also, how most males seem to always promise girls that they are “completely clean,” even though they will jump in bed with almost anyone they can get their hands on! It is true Kit that the book on sex education in Texas needs to be re-written because as it is now, it is prehistoric!

Nationally Representative CDC Study Finds 1 in 4 Teenage Girls Has a Sexually Transmitted Disease

http://www.cdc.gov/stdconference/2008/press/release-11march2008.htm

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 3:03 pm
If the State refuses to Educate kids, then we have to rely on a massive public service campaign for condom use! We know that it probably wouldn't be aired in the very states that need it the most..so those of us in the "educated states" must tell our children about those ignorant (and probably disease ridden) children in "those" states..which will only cause MORE prejudice...it's a vicious circle & SEEMS to be a CONspiracy against the poor yet again.. So Bu$h League it reeks!:(

Wednesday June 6, 2012, 9:03 pm
Abstinence only sex ed does not work. All it does is NOT prepare teens (who turn into adults) for sex when they decide to have it.

Thursday June 7, 2012, 12:45 pm
A dumbed-down society is easily controlled. So goes Texas.......

Are we liking our Fascism yet? The American Taliban is alive and well and thriving in the Lone Star State. GAG me with a tea bag......

Thursday June 7, 2012, 8:02 pm
Noted

Thursday June 7, 2012, 10:01 pm

Frank jest might be havein' a point thar....

Yvonne speaks of evil things - condom education, in Texas? How dare she suggest....

Thursday June 7, 2012, 11:07 pm
LOL! Maybe we should pelt the Dept. of Education with condoms stuffed with tea bags, eh Terrie? Does Texas have a Dept. of Education, or is it one "Church Lady" in the back room of one of those Mega Churchs? Illinoisians CAN be wicked.. we like to go to Missouri and ask them to "Show Me" theirs first..;)

Friday June 8, 2012, 12:54 am
94% of kids getting one message and no real facts - sounds like a class action to me - denying education and important facts so kids can design their lives without illegitimate children ...

Friday June 8, 2012, 2:49 am
Stupidity begets stupidity.
The only smart thing to do is give them the info to protect against unwanted pregnancies and disease
I am so sick of the "religious" trying to force their antiquated ignorant tenets on the rest of us
Keep the freakin religion out of the classroom...just the facts, please.
The most religious people I have met in my half a century of life were also the most hypocritical.

Friday June 8, 2012, 5:34 am
This is why abstinence-only education does not, will never, and has never worked. Stupid fanatical dumbass pretend christians.

Friday June 8, 2012, 10:20 am
"if you didn't know better, you’d think there was a concerted effort going on in Texas to increase the number of children being born to teen parents"

Makes perfect sense. What better way to mass produce dumb, uneducated voters and cheap labour? Soon they won't need Mexicans to keep them supplied with underpaid field hands.

Friday June 8, 2012, 4:14 pm
“first choice is that teens chose not to have sex.”

And these people call the US Government the nanny state. Texas wants to be in every backseat of every car and in the bedroom of every teen and presumable every other possible place where two teens might do the deed. Which is everywhere if you've ever BEEN a teen or known one. Good luck with that fools. They'll soon have the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies in the nation and probably be proud of it. Won't allow any to be aborted either. Then again they won't care for any of those children either, the parents or the baby. Not really a fool proof plan even though admittedly, it is conceived, pun intended, BY fools. It just never stops amazing me that some people actually make it to adulthood alive, they are so dumb you'd think a speeding car would have gotten them while in the crosswalk praying for the light to go green. Sigh...

Friday June 8, 2012, 11:35 pm
Has telling young people not to have sex ever worked anywhere ever?