Sorry, but AO education doesn't get the results you're after. Do you want to keep kids in the dark about sexuality or do you want to reduce the number of abortions? If you want to reduce abortion (supposedly the stated goal here, then AO is not the way to go.

Science and common sense, not wishful thinking and hypocrisy, should guide what we teach kids about sex.
Arthur Caplan — Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania
Cite

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The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes" including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use."

"Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect," said the report.

Cite

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1) Scientific evidence simply does not support an abstinence-only-until-marriage approach.

2) Researchers concluded that recent declines in the U.S. rate of teen pregnancy are most likely the result of improved use of contraception rather than a decrease in sexual activity.

3)One of the study’s investigators said, “we didn’t see any strong indications these programs were
having an impact in the direction desired…these programs seem to be much more concerned about
politics than kids, and we need to get over that.” NO SURPRISE HERE!

4) Researchers concluded, “rather than focusing on Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage, data suggests
that including information on contraceptive use may be more effective at decreasing teen pregnancies.”
Cite

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Study Casts Doubt on Abstinence-Only Programs
Cite

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“After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions,” said James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth.

“The tragedy is not simply the waste of taxpayer dollars, it is the damage done to the young people who have been on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control. We have been promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS, and that’s not just bad public health policy, its bad ethics”.

“This report should serve as the final verdict on the failure of the abstinence-only industry in this country,” said William Smith, vice president for public policy of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). “It shows, once again, that these programs fail miserably in actually helping young people behave more responsibly when it comes to their sexuality,” Smith continued.

Cite

Report itself

The “enlighten ones” all thought contraception, free love, and sex education would solve all the problems. For a long time the secular world and even the Christians bought into the ideology of a more liberal attitude toward morality. Guess what? There are more abortions than ever, more divorces than ever, more venereal diseases than ever, more suicide etc.. Wake up!

Are you aware that the countries with more sex education and more accessibility to birth control have fewer teen pregnancies, fewer STDs and fewer abortions? We should wake up! Wake up to the fact that we are doing a very poor job of education our youth.

April 20th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

Two new studies presented at the National Press Club provide encouraging findings about abstinence education.

The first study by Dr. Stan Weed, Institute of Research and Evaluation, evaluated the impact of abstinence education in reducing the initiation of sexual activity by seventh graders in suburban Virginia. Dr. Weed's findings demonstrate that abstinence education programs cut the rate of sexual initiation among students almost in half and that gender and race did not affect the outcome. Dr. Weed is scheduled to present his findings at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 23, 2008.

The second paper is a background paper published by Heritage Foundation's Christine Kim and Robert Rector. This paper reviews twenty-one abstinence education programs and finds that sixteen overall reported statistically positive results such as delayed sexual initiation and reduced levels of early sexual activity.

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, concludes, "Refraining from sexual initiation is the healthiest decision for youth. It protects them from pregnancy, STDs, other risk behaviors and emotional entanglements that are too intimate for immature youth to handle. This is the main criteria on which sex education programs should be evaluated, and these new studies show that abstinence education successfully reduces sexual initiation."

Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute stated, "It is amazing that some legislators would want to cut abstinence education funding when it is such a drop in the bucket to the amount of money that goes to comprehensive sex education programs. And, look at what happened when all that money was spent for all those years on comprehensive sex education — teen sexual activity went up, teen pregnancies went up and abortions went up. Now that we have more abstinence programs in more schools, all three trends are going down. Now, THAT is what ought to happen and the programs that make that happen are what we ought to support."

Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,"77 "by the very commission of the offense,"78 and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.79 The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.

"One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."

It is their actions that condemn them and place them outside of the Christian community. Much in the same way that there is NO such thing as a Catholic that commits abortion. All you have to do is read the Catechism. If you don't practice what is in the Catechism then you are not a Catholic.

The devil is not picky who he invites to Hell.

But you're not being judgmental, right?

FYI: Your name link doesn't work.

April 21st, 2008 at 6:12 pm

The devil is not picky who he invites to Hell.