Finally, the chairmen of two House committees are initiating a probe into Bush's abstinence-only policies for attempting to spread HIV and AIDS. You know because abstinence-only really works with women who are married with men that are cheating on them and getting infected that way. Or I don't know for anyone else, who has sex, which is everyone. Bush's global abstinence-only policy is so uninformed and void of sense, I can only think that it is intentionally racist and sexist.
Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Tom Lantos (D-CA, chairs of the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform and Foreign Affairs, respectively, wrote with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) to Mark Dybul, the US Global AIDS Coordinator, in a Monday letter. It warned that the administration's current approach to HIV/AIDS prevention was coming up short."[A] recently completed impact evaluation that the Administration commissioned suggests that U.S.-funded 'abstinence and be faithful' programs are failing to meet the needs of sexually active youth," the three Congressmembers wrote. "According to the study, many of the evaluated programs lack age-appropriate, skill-based lessons on partner reduction, mutual fidelity, and cross-generational and transactional sex....most of the programs do not seem to have procedures in place to refer sexually active or 'at-risk' youth to more comprehensive programs, despite your office's direction that they do so."
Yeah, no shit.
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I'm sure these programs are especially effective in areas like the one where this girl lives:
"In my village, I know 15-year-old girls who have gotten pregnant. At fifteen, you have many boyfriends and you do not know which one got you pregnant. "
Read more here:
http://noames.blogspot.com/2007/07/err-hi.html
Kudos to Lantos and Waxman
The UK is starting to get the weird abstinence "message" coming over here too. I mean I don't get it because, well, maybe I'm a bit odd, but I actually enjoy sex, I think it's fun and I think people should do it if they want to because it's enjoyable. Somehow though the pro-abstinence guys are very good at marketing their message.
Abstinence only is bad for teens, but Samhita makes a good point that for married wimmin it's a joke. Imagine telling your husband no, especially if you don't live in a culture that respects your autonomy.
Cruella:
Yeah, when I was in England, I started seeing reports about the Promise Ring movement and all that stuff, but I thought English people would laugh it off, because this was right after the Jerry Springer: The Musical brought death threats to the BBC programmers, and the British basically ignored it until the crazy people went away.
On the other hand, this was right before the papers started running stories of "Britain's Youngest Mother" as though a twelve-year-old having a baby was an accomplishment, so maybe the UK is seeing backlash from things like that?
Although I am in now means a (strong) proponent of abstinence as a method to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. I think a strong line should be drawn between the utility of this policy in developed and developing countries. To have sex and to be abstinent is a choice but due to modern pressure it is unlikely that many people will abstinence as the most fun/popular/cool choice. I doubt many readers of this site has seen the devestation that HIV/AIDS can cause. In South Africa this disease causes WIDE spread suffering across the spectrum. In our fight against HIV/AIDS we have to weigh up our lives against the semi-hedonistic pleasure of sex. Sadly, it may be worth considering relatively extreme measures such as abstinence.
If I may add: I'm not sure why this policy could be termed as "racist" and "sexist".
"Abstinence only is bad for teens, but Samhita makes a good point that for married wimmin it's a joke. Imagine telling your husband no, especially if you don't live in a culture that respects your autonomy."
...and especially if you live in a culture that doesn't respect girls' education. Maybe there are some housewives out there who don't fear getting beat up for refusing sex but fear "OK, if you don't want me I'll leave you alone and go look for a woman who does" reactions because they were never taught how to support themselves without husbands?