Teen birth rates were declining before (PM - 12/6/2007 11:27:36 AM)
this nonsense was started. http://www.advocatesforyouth.o...
Just when you thought President Dubya couldn't possibly screw up another thing, a new report shows one of his core social agendas is starting to fail after working for the past 14 years. Seems that teen pregnancies are up about 3% this past year after a steady decline the past 14 years.
While experts said it was unclear what may be causing the reversal, the new data reignited debate about abstinence-only sex-education programs, which receive about $176 million a year in federal funding. Congress is currently debating whether to increase that by $28 million.
I love that misnomer: abstinence-only sex education. It's more like brain washing than education when huge portions of well-known fact are excluded from the educational curriculum.
Anyway, after seven years under Dubya's management the abstinence-only programs appear to be going as well as all his other efforts. Ok, it wouldn't be fair to blame just him (although the buck stops with the boss) - I think we can throw in all the other social conservative crackpots who continue to support this brain washing education policy. And they want to put more money into it? Brilliant.
Is there anything left for Dubya and the Conservatives to run into the ground?
a recent Guttmacher study found that 86% of the decline in the overall U.S. teen pregnancy rate (which includes all pregnancies that end in births, induced abortions or miscarriages) between 1995 and 2002 was the result of improved contraceptive use, while only a small proportion of the decline (14%) can be attributed to teens waiting longer to start having sex.