Markham's Behavioral Health

Abstinence based sex ed programs don't work - Bush Administration gets it wrong

  Reuters HealthDay reported on August 21, 2008 on a study which appears in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health which found that abstinence based programs don't work.

In 2007 alone the Bush administration spent 176 million dollars on abstinence only sex education for our young people and nothing for comprehensive sex education. Here is a snippet from the HealthDay article:

"Interventions that have been created to encourage abstinence have treated abstinence and sexual activity as opposites. However, teenagers say they don't think of them as opposites," lead author Tatiana Masters, a doctoral student in social work, said in a university news release.

"These (abstinence-only) interventions are less likely to work than more comprehensive sex-education programs, because they are not meeting adolescents where they are, and they are speaking a different language," Masters said.

The study included 365 adolescents (230 girls, 135 boys) in Seattle who took part in an intervention to reduce HIV risk behavior. The participants filled out questionnaires asking them about their attitudes and intentions about abstinence and sex, and about their sexual activity in the previous six months.

At the start of the study, 11 percent of the boys and 4 percent of the girls had had sexual intercourse. That increased to 12 percent of the boys and 8 percent of the girls six months later, and to 22 percent of the boys and 12 percent of the girls one year later.

"This paper demonstrates that increasing abstinence intention does not lead to less sex. In fact, when abstinence intention and sex intention interact with each other a teenager is more likely to have sex," Masters said.

The study was published in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.

In 2007, the U.S. government provided $176 million for abstinence-only programs, but there is no federal funding for comprehensive sex education programs. This study's findings "raise serious concerns about the abstinence-only approach as a risk-reduction method for adolescent sexual behavior," Masters and colleagues concluded.

Catholic church has got it wrong on birth control - catholic critics ask pope to lift contraception ban

Yahoo News, using a piece from Reuters, reports on July 25, 2008, about a paid advertisement in a major Italian newspaper placed by 50 Catholic organizations to lift the Vatican's ban on birth control. Here is a snippet from the article:

More than 50 dissident Catholic groups published an unusually frank open letter to Pope Benedict on Friday saying the Church's ban on contraception has been "catastrophic" and urging him to lift it.

The letter was published as a paid half-page advertisement in Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest newspaper, on the 40th anniversary of the late Pope Paul VI's controversial encyclical "Humanae Vitae," which enshrined the ban.

While criticism of the Vatican and its views is fairly common in articles and editorials in Italian newspapers, it is unusual for a group to take out paid advertising against the pope, particularly in a large-circulation mainstream newspaper.

The letter, written in Italian, said the Church's anti-contraception policy "has had a catastrophic impact on the poor and powerless around the world, endangering women's lives and leaving millions at risk of HIV."

Of course, changing the teaching is long overdue. The church has been wrong about this teaching for decades since Humanae Vitae, the encyclical in the 60s by Paul VI, that started the controversy and dissent by the laity. Since that time the church has lost credibility and the faith of the people it professes to lead.

How about considering the standard discernment question, What Would Jesus Do? I think Jesus would fully support the use of birth control.

Print Story: Catholic critics ask pope to lift contraception ban on Yahoo! News.

McCain gets it wrong on birth control

Many insurance companies cover prescriptions for Vigara but not for birth control. John McCain doesn't know what he thinks about the issue, needs to check with his handlers, before he takes a position.

This is not a difficult issue. Birth control definitely should be covered by health insurance. It clearly is in the patient's interest and society's interest for people to be able to control their fertility. McCain gets it wrong.

Video lasts 2:14

McCain gets it wrong on H.I.V.+ prevention

McCain was asked about using condoms to prevent HIV+ transmission by Adam Nagourney at the New York Times. Here is the interchange.

Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.

Adam Nagourney, McCain Sumbles Upon H.I.V.Prevention, The New York Times, March 16  , 2007

McCain has appalling record on reproductive rights.

Click on image for easier reading.

For more information go to the NARAL Pro-Choice America pdf of his voting record by clicking here.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist got it wrong on STDs and HIV+

George Stephanopolous grills Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist on whether tears and sweat transmit HIV. Stephanopolous also grills him on abstinence based programs' effectiveness.

The country's public health is safer with this guy gone and his Republican cronies and their cockamamie policies based more on religious and ideological beliefs than good public health research.

This is leadership at its worst. It is malpractice and irresponsible.

Video lasts 3:03.

The majority of Americans say that abortion should be legal under some circumstances

According to a recent Gallup poll the majority of Americans (54%) say that abortion should be legal under some circumstances. More women than men say that abortion should be legal and there is no difference in opinion between Catholics and other Americans even though the Catholic Church officially teaches that abortion is a sin.

Dr. Frank Newport summarizes the data on the recent poll in a video that lasts 2:15 minutes.

Missing child now a prostitute

Another Onion satire that can make you cry as well as laugh.

Age progression techonology indicates a missing run away child is a prostitute by now. Today Now with Tracy Gill. Video lasts 2:49

Age-Progression Technology Indicates Missing Child A Prostitute By Now

Annuale- a new pill for women who only want to have a period once per year

The Business of Being Born, the film

My wife and I had 9 children. The last four were born at home between 1978 and 1987. We were way ahead of our time or way behind the time however you want to look at it, because during these years all babies were born in hospitals except for very, very, very, few. The people who gave birth at home either alone or with a midwife were considered to be very counter-cultural, or irresponsible, or crazy. Yet, 70 - 80% of babies in every first world country, except the United States, are born with a midwife, many at home.

Why is the United States with the second highest infant mortality rate of first world countries, so unusual in that it has professionalized and institutionalized one of the most natural functions in the world? As usual, follow the money. Birthing has become a big business even if it is bad for mothers and babies.

No woman in the United States should have a baby without seeing Ricki Lake's new documentary, released in 2008, The Business of Being Born. I highly recommend this film.

To watch the trailer, click here.

Link: The Business of Being Born (2008).