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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
 Posted - 12/06/2007 : 14:48:50
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source
The birth rate had been dropping since its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday, government statisticians said it rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.
The reason for the increase is not clear, and federal health officials said it might be a one-year statistical blip, not the beginning of a new upward trend.
However, some experts said they have been expecting a jump. They attributed it to increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that doesn't teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception.
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by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Edited by - pleco on 12/06/2007 14:49:05
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 12/06/2007 : 16:05:18 [Permalink]
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| This is certainly interesting. Though the "statistical blip" is the most likely explanation, it is certainly worth following more closely. A continued upward trend would be damning evidence regarding abstinence-only policy and teen pregnancy. |
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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 16:41:06 [Permalink]
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You know what the religious right will say: that their method of abstinence is not being tried; since people are still screwing around.
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>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 17:03:12 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
A continued upward trend would be damning evidence regarding abstinence-only policy and teen pregnancy.
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I think you mean more damning evidence that abstinence-only policies don't work.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 12/06/2007 17:03:27 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 17:10:12 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by H. Humbert
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
A continued upward trend would be damning evidence regarding abstinence-only policy and teen pregnancy.
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I think you mean more damning evidence that abstinence-only policies don't work. |
True, HH (and BTW, where have you been?). And anyone even remotely familiar with the topic (or honest about wanting to do what works) would be aware of some of the stuff your links mention. But it seems to me that the most basic metric in seeing what works (or not) against teen pregnancy is the rate of teen pregnancy. If pleco's stat does represent an upward trend, what leg to the abstinence-only people have left to stand on? |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 17:18:55 [Permalink]
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I blame the Dover Trial.
Seriously, note that the decline was slowing in recent years before it went up.
So, I really blame Dubya. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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| Edited by - pleco on 12/06/2007 17:19:06 |
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Halcyon Dayz
New Member
Netherlands
27 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 18:45:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by pleco
I blame the Dover Trial.
Seriously, note that the decline was slowing in recent years before it went up.
So, I really blame Dubya.
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Best not to personify the problem.
There is a whole reactionary movement out there.
The shrub is just one of their point-men. |
An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it. -- Don Marquis
"The universe is a strange, practically incomprehensible place. But that is how things are, and no amount of wishing that things are really the way we perceive them will change that." - The Black Cat |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 19:46:08 [Permalink]
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It's that damnable New Atheism. Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris standing outside elementary schools, telling children that God is dead, and anything goes.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Shirlay
New Member
USA
2 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 21:25:41 [Permalink]
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I am a teen and honestly all it is is "social status" B.S.
They just need to close their legs.
There is NO reason why some girl needs to be dropping out of High school because she got knocked up.
Stop this nonsense |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 12/06/2007 : 22:08:02 [Permalink]
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Shirlay said:
They just need to close their legs.
There is NO reason why some girl needs to be dropping out of High school because she got knocked up.
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Its a matter of knowledge. Some people experience sex drive more powerfully than others, and some people are under more peer-pressure than other (especially in HS) to have sex. Those who are perceived as very attractive get a ton of attention from the opposite sex, and that pressure is hard to resist even for adults.
The bottom line is simple. People are going to have sex, regardless of their age, as long as they are physically capable of it.
Abstinence only education does not work to limit pregnancy or the spread of STDs.
Knowledge is the only effective tool we have here. I have a step-sister who is devoutly catholic. She and her husband will not use any method of artificial birth control (condoms, sponges, pills, spermicides, etc). They have managed to plan their family and avoid undesired pregnancy though! She knows, through measurement of body temp over a bit of time, exactly when her ovulation cycle is. So for three days before and three after they abstain. They have two children, exactly three years apart, and are planning for one or two more.
Pure abstinence is an utterly foolish concept for sex education though. Teenagers aren't going to abstain, the people who preach abstinence know that very well.
They only way to lower teen pregnancy rates is comprehensive eduction on the effective methods of birth control. Now if they want to emphasize abstinence, fine and dandy, but kids still need to know what a condom is and how to properly use it.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 03:35:03 [Permalink]
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When I was in sixth grade in about 1956, we had about a week of eagerly-awaited "Social Hygiene" (what a euphemism!) instruction. As I recall, parents had to sign a release so their kids could be taught. As far as I remember, nobody in my class ended up being excluded by their parents.
It was a rather "academic" and sanitized presentation, but it did explain how adolescents matured, how precisely woman became pregnant, and explained the cycle of pregnancy from conception to birth. We boys finally learned what a vagina looked like, and the girls learned what our equipment looked like, and how it worked.
The short course also dealt with venereal diseases, including scary pictures. I honestly can't recall for certain whether condoms were discussed, but I think they were mentioned, along with the diaphragm. (For sure, The Pill wasn't mentioned, as it hadn't been invented.) No mention of homosexuality was made. There was some nervous giggling, but no joking around by students.
Sixth grade was probably a bit late for sex education, but it sure beat not having it. The idea that, even now in the 21st Century, many public schools are telling kids how sex works but then telling them not to do it strikes me as a shamefully backward approach, especially when birth control is not even being taught. What an embarrassment to our nation that this is happening, due to pressure from the religious, even in this millenium.
Despite the "Sexual Revolution," we have actually regressed in America.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 12/07/2007 03:35:41 |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 05:25:31 [Permalink]
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| Maybe if they could develop a sex-ed program with plenty of r-rated violence/blood & gore (perhaps a movie with Arnold in it?), then most Americans wouldn't mind anymore. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 09:08:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Shirlay
I am a teen and honestly all it is is "social status" B.S.
They just need to close their legs.
There is NO reason why some girl needs to be dropping out of High school because she got knocked up.
Stop this nonsense
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That's what abortion is for, keep girls in school. |
-Chaloobi
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 09:10:46 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by pleco
source
The birth rate had been dropping since its peak in 1991, although the decline had slowed in recent years. On Wednesday, government statisticians said it rose 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.
The reason for the increase is not clear, and federal health officials said it might be a one-year statistical blip, not the beginning of a new upward trend.
However, some experts said they have been expecting a jump. They attributed it to increased federal funding for abstinence-only health education that doesn't teach teens how to use condoms and other contraception.
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I'd like to see a chart showing the Teen Mom Birth rate, the Abortion Rate and Abstinance Only funding plotted against each other for the last few decades. Anyone have that? |
-Chaloobi
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 11:10:56 [Permalink]
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Frankly, the assumptions in this thread are unfounded. No % trend can continue downward forever. Until we see some state by state numbers along with the distribution of abtinance style sex ed all we are doing is speculating in favor of our desired position.
I am aware that abstinance ed is performing poorly, I'd just like to see better founded arguements here, we know better. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2007 : 11:35:19 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Cuneiformist
True, HH (and BTW, where have you been?). |
Ah, I've been around. Just busy with work and the holidays. I've still been reading the threads, just not offering my two cents as often. Plus, I still want to go back to that "What is religion?" thread, but I just haven't had the time to really sit down and think through my arguments. Part of me feels guilty posting in other threads until I make time to do that.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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Teen Pregnancy Up - First time in 15 yrs
