The rate of live births in this nation to single females is approaching 50%. It is long past time that this cease to be a political football and become a national health problem. The only excuse for abstinance based education is a desire for a population that is ignorant and easy to manipulate. Nature has designed the human animal to be desire to reproduce long before society has mandated any right to do so. The problem therefore, is to teach children how to handle conflicting demands from their bodies and the need to support their own children. Abstinance based education fails to do this as it is unrealistic and based in denial of medical fact. By withholding contraceptives from developing nations such as those in Africa, the first Bush administration contributed to the famine there. Native cultures are far wiser as they understand the earth can support just so many humans. To encourage the birth of children parents are not prepared to support is to lessen the quality of life, not only for those children, but for all mankind. It is most selfish of the Republican Party to impose its warped and insane ideology on the entire world. We need to restore the educational standards in this nation in our public schools which taught critical thinking so that young people are able to make decisions for themselves instead of demanding they follow some leader into whatever future the GOP has in mind for them.

JMK

Bush is piling on just one more deseparate attempt to show how uninformed with the world he truly is. My daughter is practicing abstinance and although she has boyfriends they don't last as she doesn't "put out". She is quite beautiful and is independent and due to here treatment in school has become a defender of human rights. As a mother of a junior in high school, I have watched my daughter being harassed, openly and in front of adults, by boys cominig right out and asking her to have sex with them. She has been called a dike or gay loudly with lots of laughing around her. Her bus rides to school were hell for her as the verbal and physical harassment were met with ridicule and outright denial by the bus driver, the principal and the boys parents. It got to the point that I couldn't even talk to the principal unless I had a witness of subtantial standing to be by my side. As a result she is branded as a lier and troublemaker. The schools here teach sex education in 7th grade but no condoms are handed out, as parents [or I should say the school board] here thinks that is saying that sex is okay. Little do they know their kids are perpetuating the popular standard. You can't be popular unless you put out and the schools just awards their male students by denial of this fact! I will acknowledge lack of family caregivers, curfews, role models, kids being raised by vcr's and tv's as babysitters, lack of education in parents, peer pressure, just wanting to have a boyfriend and wanting to get out of the house and if I am with child surly he will marry me, as foundation blocks for reasons to have sex BUT not only is Bush in denial but our school systems perpetuate and gives it a stamp of approval as the girls leave school but the boys get to stay and move on to another girl.

As a college student, I have seen first-hand what abstinence only "education" can do to young women's lives. Without the full facts, youths cannot make educated decisions regarding their lives. Don't we owe the future generations of America the autonomy to make their own decisions? When did this become problematic? This perpetuation of ignorance is inexcusable, especially when those in favor of it know the full facts about its downfalls. There have been numerous studies done to show the ineffectiveness of abstinence only programs. While it would be wonderful if we could make young people understand that waiting until marriage is their best option, teaching them that it is their only option is irresponsible at best. In a country in which a woman's right to choose is being slowly eroded by conservative interests that make big dollar donations to our current administration, one would imagine that teaching our children how to prevent pregnancy even if they choose not to wait until marriage would become a priority. Instead, we have turned to censorship and the members of the minority are imposing their morality on the majority. This is truly a case of the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

I think that sex is a big problem these days! It has gotten to the point where men refuse to get married before they have sex. This is an evil world in which I live! I'm not even a teenager anymore and I've been waiting and waiting for someone to marry me before sex and they won't! I'm 21. Someone needs to strap these boys down and tell them they don't need to have sex in their teens! They get so much free sex that they won't get married. Does abstinence only until marriage mean I wait forever to have sex??? That sure is how it appears in this modern world. I've really been trying to wait until marriage and now I don't think anyone is ever going to marry me! There should be some kind of law against teenage sex!

By living in a country that is afraid and ashamed to talk and learn about their sexuality or sex in general breeds a nation full of people who are essentially embarrassed and unhealthy all the time. Sex is something that we all naturally love and need. Teaching kids abstinence is similar to obedience school for dogs. We are, in a way, being trained against our instincts and desires and tought that they are wrong in the name of religion or some other rediculous concept. Maybe if our society and media made a more comfortable atmosphere for people to learn and grow in, and gave students a full and truthful education, (all options instead of just unhealthy abstinence) we wouldnt have a problem like we do. Sex and sexuality have become a tabbooed subject and that is sad. We clearly have a problem but no one wants to look at the source. We have a president who is trying to rid his citizens of reproductive freedom. ??? Yeah. Look at the source. Everything seems to be backwards.

I was an HIV/STD educator for a youth program. Previously we were given a 50,000.00 per year grant to fund the education program. This grant was earmarked for paying the salary of 2 educators/counselers and providing contraceptives to youth free of charge. (condoms, dental dams, lubericant, etc) Then Bush came to office. It began a slow trickle, promoting abstinence ed, slowly less and less funding went to the federal programs, then the state programs were hit. Last year we lost our grant. In the past year the std and pregnancy rate ha risen. 2 of the youth I was working with contracted HIV. Both are suicides. While I firmly believe abstinence is the only sure way to not get an STD or become pregnant, we all know that situations come to pass and bad decisions are made.

In Minnesota alone a trend has been set, STD's that we haven't seen running rampant since the 70's are back (Syphilis). Personally I don't want to just arm my young ones with the message "Just don't do it" I don't feel that it as strong a defense as "Just don't do it, but if you do here are your options."

Abstinance is a great alternative;

However, the true equalizer is teaching teens responsible sexual behavior;

The facts are that our so-called institutions of higher learning are trying to uphold their quality of education while still trying to keep with these Bush Oriented faith based intiative policies and, keep in accordance and, perspective with the requirements of the board of education is compromising the Public School Systems ability to do its job adequately;

And as much as the Third Reich(another name for far right wing Fundamentalist Christian groups) would love to keep our teens ignorant and, for that I don't love them or, their policies and. I am a strong advocate of progressive and, responsible teaching and, if the third reich doesn't like it they can get off my part of the planet!

My second beef with the public school system and, all institutions of higher learning is that not enough is being done to discourage hate crimes that occur against LGBT Students;

In addition administrative policies need to address this problem as seriously as if it were a crime against a student of Color or, Foreign Heritage and, I would advocate to any student who feells as though they are being singled out or, discriminated against to contact the ACLU

Abstinence-only education is just plain stupid. Countries with low teen pregnancy rates have good sex education programs, not programs based on conservative ideology. As the mother of two boys, I want them to grow up knowing that (a) they do not need to have sex before they are ready, and (b) when they are ready, condoms should be used. I want them to be responsible and caring in their sexual behavior, and I believe that is more likely to happen if they are informed about sex and its consequences by adults, not just by their peers. While they'll still learn about responsible sexual behavior from my husband and me, Bush's senseless policies assure that their peers will be a major source of (mis)information about sex. Good going, Bush, for taking us back to the Dark Ages in so many ways.

Abstinance is NOT an answer to sexual problems or sex education.

Bush sends a lot of aids drugs to Africa, doing NOTHING to stop new cases... CONDOMS stop AIDS. EDUCATION stops AIDS.

Helping those with AIDS live longer is nice, but does NOTHING to stop new cases. People are still having sex. They will do so forever... "Telling" them to stop is a JOKE!

Get religion OUT of the government, and OUT of the classroom... It's just like having a witch doctor instead of a real one...

FREE america... Dont enslave us...

Sex education is important for all students, starting young. It should provide clear information for all, not just the info that school administrators, school board members, or political leaders think is important. For a long time, in our local school, sex education has been taught using contraceptive info, but teachers are not allowed to talk about homosexuality or abortion, due to a school board policy. If they were limited by governmental or school policy to teaching abstinence, we would have a higher rate of pregnancy than our school district already has (which is high for our rural area). It would not be fair to students and parents who want to have the full picture; the class may be the only way they learn this stuff, since parents are not doing much at home. Currently any family that wants to pull a student from a session (such as on contraception) may do so. If they need it, students will find info, correct or not - better to be correct. Eighth grade is hard enough without more pregnant girls in class, and our government does not want to financially support more teens having babies. So why limit sex education to avoiding sex, when all the studies show that teens are having sex, protected or not?

Some years ago when my son was in 7th grade his school reinstituted sex education classes. Previously there had been a lot of controversy in this rural, conservative community about the class. The new approach was very practical. First they had a list of 10 things the youngsters might want such as be a cheerleader, go to college, buy a car, etc. Then they asked each student to put at the top of the list, have a baby and think how that would affect the items they had listed. My son came home one day and told me that if he got a girl pregnant he would be financially responsible for the next 18 years. That really made an impression. To say that abstinence will prevent unwanted pregnancies and STDs is absolutely correct. BUT as a policy it is totally ineffective. Most of us can remember to being blindsided by our hormones at some time. We need sex education that is well informed, based on fact. We also need to have parents who admit their children are sexual creatures by nature and give then the information to deal with it responsibly. The county I live in now has one of the highest percentages of teen pregnancies in the state. As I mentioned earlier it is a very conservative area and many prefer to think sex education means teaching children to be sexually active. Economics also play a part. In rural, isolated areas there is little in the way of diversion and often little hope of making a better life. All of these factors bear on the problems of STDs and unplanned pregnancies. The 2000 census for the first time tracked grandparents who were raising their grandchildren. The town in which I live had a mind boggling 43%.

sex education is important.....I was denied that information when I was a teenager I thought if you kissed a boy you would get pregnant I was very ashamed of my body and for many years I abused myself because of feeling ashamed My mom had 3 girls and when I came along i think she was tired she was able to pick me up a belt- I never knew what it was for intil one day at school I went to the bathroom and I was bleeding it was scary

Commitments to abstinence have a big failure rate. The American Academy of Pediatrics made the following documented statement before a congressional committee on April 23, 2002. "About 26% of adolescent couples trying to abstain from intercourse will become pregnant within 1 year. Teenage couples who choose to abstain from sexual intercourse should be encouraged and supported by their parents, peers, and society (including the media) and especially by their pediatrician. But they need to know about other contraceptive options BEFORE or IF they decide to have intercourse. (Read the full statement at http://www.aap.org/advocacy/washing/review_of_abstinence_ed.htm)

I wish we would have had some kind of real sex ed when I went to school. We were given a small amount of information. I was very over protected by my parents, in many ways. I wasn't allowed to date until I was out of high school. Then I was told I could date anyone I wanted to. My mother didn't know how to explane to me how you get pregnant or about the reproductive system. I was very niave. So I ended up being a statistic. Pregnant at 19 and the father took off for parts unknown. I'm not the only girl that it has happened to and I most likely will not be the last. The only people that would beleive that teaching only abstinence are eather blind or stupid, maybe both. Mister Bush can not look me (a Mother of 3 sons) or anyone else in the eye and say he didn't want to have sex so bad he could bite nails into. If he does he would be lying. For an educated country we are the most primitive. I was always told that knowlege was power. Now I'm being told it isn't. Our children can not make an informed decision if they only have half the information.