Guest Post by Morbo
Just how out of it is the Religious Right when it comes to sex education in America? Consider this: A recent poll shows that 67 percent support the distribution of contraceptives in public schools.
The new poll by the Associated Press-Ipsos shows that most people favor a system of parental consent, and qualms remain about the possibility of sending mixed messages. But by and large, the American public has made up its mind on the issue of sex education and birth control: Young people are going to have sex, so they should learn about ways to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
This issue came to the fore recently after a public school in Portland, Me., announced that it would provide birth control to middle school students without parental consent. I don’t go that far. These kids are too young (11 to 13), and the parents need to be involved in the process.
Between the extreme of unfettered access for 11-year-olds and the view of the Religious Right — that teens should be indoctrinated with medically inaccurate, often overly religious “fear-based” abstinence-only programs that do not work — is a sensible middle ground. Most of the American public is perching there. It is a place assiduously avoided by the Bush administration.
Whenever anyone tells me that the Religious Right is a dying movement with no real power, I point to this issue (as well as John Roberts and Samuel Alito). Sex education programs are just one area where the Religious Right has had real success, much to the detriment of our youngsters.
Thanks to theocratic Bible brigades, federal law prohibits the discussion of artificial forms of birth control in sex education program funded by tax dollars. These programs are not “abstinence-based,” they are “abstinence-only.” The distinction is important. The former includes programs that, while stressing the importance of abstinence for young people, includes discussion of birth control. The latter is a delusion cooked up by fundamentalist Christians and orthodox Catholics that has been shown, time and again, to be ineffective.
Some states, frustrated with this approach, rejected the money. But most took it and farmed the sex “education” out to religious fanatics who tell kids that most condoms break or that you can get pregnant from oral sex. Then they talk about Jesus.
This is not the approach the American people want. Yet it’s the one we have. In the year 2007. It’s time for a change. It’s also time for the Democratic candidates to start talking about how they’ll change it. The answer is easy: Cut off every tax dime to the “faith-based” promoters of the abstinence-only delusion. They can still spread their religion and bad medical advice — with their own money.