Abortion, sex education spark debate over Planned Parenthood grant

A fight erupted over a $50,000 grant to Planned Parenthood for teen sex education at the Franklin County Board of Commissioners meeting yesterday.

[Mimi]

Did anyone notice since we started "educating" children (also adults who've been educated for the last 20+ years) has not stopped unwanted pregnancy or the spread of disease?

[Education WORKS]

It is not the educated who are getting diseases and unwated pregnancy. It is the victims of misinformation and ignorance. There is not nearly enough education out there about contraception and self-worth for young women.

[Suburb gal]

Mimi wrote:

Did anyone notice since we started "educating" children (also adults who've been educated for the last 20+ years) has not stopped unwanted pregnancy or the spread of disease?

It's because there hasn't been one clear message! All of Bush's years were spent promoting abstinence which only led to more disease and unwanted pregnancies. If this country had a unified campaign to teach teens AND UNEDUCATED ADULTS about prevention then we would be in a different situation!

[Mary Simpson]

Mimi wrote:

Did anyone notice since we started "educating" children (also adults who've been educated for the last 20+ years) has not stopped unwanted pregnancy or the spread of disease?

Neither did the old style Abstinence lectures when I grew up (1950's)- we had plenty of unplanned pregnancies, bad sudden marriages, and killing back-street abortions.

[Grumpy Old Man]

Let's do the math here. Better sex education and prevention = less need for abortions. The Right to Lifers expect people to ignore the most basic human urges, yet they are horrified at abortions. So am I. But the answer is not changing the Law of the Land. It''s getting people who don't want to get pregnant to take better preventative measures. By fighting Planned Parentihood, they are making the abortion problem worse.

[Wake Up]

Suburb gal wrote:

<quoted text>
It's because there hasn't been one clear message! All of Bush's years were spent promoting abstinence which only led to more disease and unwanted pregnancies. If this country had a unified campaign to teach teens AND UNEDUCATED ADULTS about prevention then we would be in a different situation!

Are you kidding me did you really say this was Bush's fault? lol This is a classic example of how our education system has failed us.

[rebel]

grown women may need an abortion so, sex education for teens is a good idea but to advertise it as "preventing the need for abortion" is the wrong message.
There is NOTHING wrong with abortion and if people don't like abortion don't get one. Real pro choicer's should demand BETTER ACCESS TO ALL RIGHTS regarding reproduction. Ther are NO laws prohibiting pregnancy so to fight for pregnant women to have more babies is a flawed fight.
Education is all this society has left.

[Bull in a China Shop]

Suburb gal wrote:

<quoted text>
It's because there hasn't been one clear message! All of Bush's years were spent promoting abstinence which only led to more disease and unwanted pregnancies. If this country had a unified campaign to teach teens AND UNEDUCATED ADULTS about prevention then we would be in a different situation!

Uhhh, explain again how abstinence leads to disease and unwanted pregnancies?

[Kwill]

Education is actually the key to prevention. Maybe not your own children, but many (thousands) of children never get the "sex talk" from a parent, family member, or guardian. Planned Parenthood is trying to do just what their name implies -- plan parenthood. Abortions often result from unplanned, unwanted pregnancies that COULD HAVE been prevented in the first place with education about contraception and abstaining. They are a holistic educator; not simply an abortion promoter. I think education in school is the only way that SOME students will ever learn about safe sex. Don't be naive enough to think that just because we aren't talking about it, it isn't happening. How many 12 and 13 year old mothers do you think there are out there? I find that those saying "keep them out of the schools" are the same ones who say "how awful" and judge when they see babies having babies....

[nobama]

Haha...everything is Bush's fault huh?? Well if thats the case..AT LEAST HE DID SOMETHING!!!!

[CMH Rick]

against PP wrote:

I wonder where Mary S. grew up in the 50s. My central Ohio school had nearly no teen pregnancies and we knew nothing of anyone having STDs. There was no HIV or AIDS either. Girls who got pregnant were not mainstreamed in school to be bad examples for others. Their illegitimate children were not in daycare at the high school. Boys and girls were not seated together in a room and embarrassed by some promoter of promiscuity in front of the class. We weren't handed rubbers and told to put them on cucumbers. We weren't indoctrinated that homosexuality is normal behavior. There were no gangs. We didn't lock our doors and our cars weren't stolen out of our driveways. Then the 60s arrived and free love came in. How do you like it people?

Get your head out of the sand. We had lots of teen's getting pregnant. We just sent the girl away for a time to live with Aunt Sally,(so we said), and then we hid the child calling it someone elses. We were ashamed and hid the facts. Don't you think it's time we started to act responsible and stop all the missinformation about how pure we were.

[nothing to it]

Bull in a China Shop wrote:

<quoted text>
Uhhh, explain again how abstinence leads to disease and unwanted pregnancies?

Because kids will have sex despite you people telling them not to. And when they do, they won't know about safe sex. Geeze you people just aren't capable of critical thinking, are you?

[from Delaware]

So, against PP. How do you know there were "nearly no teen pregnancies"? Are you just guessing? You yourself said those girls were not "mainstreamed in school to be bad examples for others." So you wouldn't have known about them. And as you say, you "knew nothing of anyone having STDs." That you didn't know about either of these things doesn't mean they didn't happen. Such matters were hush-hush in those days, but they occurred, nonetheless.
It is not reproductive education that encourages pregnancy. It is ignorance, and the judgmental attitudes that promote ignorance.

[Danny Boy]

Most people who are against sex education get their views from the sunday pulpit. Organized religions have always fed off the ignorant & poor, they are very aware that the larger the family, the greater the poverty. So they give their money in hope of a better hereafter, what a racket! Since when did medical information become a crime. No one, let me repeat, no one wants abortion.and yes times are screwed up, but we can't go back to the 50's, it's a problem, let's deal with it.

[CMH Rick]

nobama wrote:

Haha...everything is Bush's fault huh?? Well if thats the case..AT LEAST HE DID SOMETHING!!!!

Yes, he did. He got tens of thousands of people killed because of his lies.

[Come on]

I know way to fix all of this make everyone happy. Talk to your freaken kids! Don't rely on other people or organzations to teach your kids about it. Come on people take on some responsibility and raise your kids correctly!

[Paul]

Both groups claim their mission is to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to avoid abortions. PP's practices in education affirm this.

The difference between PP and the religiously-based groups is that the Right To Life groups want to CONTROL the individuals' decisions as well. It's all about taking away the choice of the individual and not allowing them to either choose to implement the education or not.

[Why]

I have seen first hand what the anti-choice group has to offer in the schools. They bring in a doctor who "preaches" the horrible consequences of sex with graphic images of sexually transmitted diseases as if those blessed by the church with marriage gain some sort of immunity. It makes less sense in person but does the same thing the Inquisition did so long ago into scaring the uneducated into some sort of subservience. God forbid we educate children to the point they make informed decisions.

[Why]

against PP wrote:

I wonder where Mary S. grew up in the 50s. My central Ohio school had nearly no teen pregnancies and we knew nothing of anyone having STDs. There was no HIV or AIDS either. Girls who got pregnant were not mainstreamed in school to be bad examples for others. Their illegitimate children were not in daycare at the high school. Boys and girls were not seated together in a room and embarrassed by some promoter of promiscuity in front of the class. We weren't handed rubbers and told to put them on cucumbers. We weren't indoctrinated that homosexuality is normal behavior. There were no gangs. We didn't lock our doors and our cars weren't stolen out of our driveways. Then the 60s arrived and free love came in. How do you like it people?

I was there too. You are so right. Those girls took that three month vacation from school to visit their dead pets at their uncles farm up north. You are so clueless.

[Ocean56]

Grumpy Old Man wrote:

Let's do the math here. Better sex education and prevention = less need for abortions. The Right to Lifers expect people to ignore the most basic human urges, yet they are horrified at abortions. So am I. But the answer is not changing the Law of the Land. It's getting people who don't want to get pregnant to take better preventative measures. By fighting Planned Parenthood, they are making the abortion problem worse.

Exactly. But you'll never convince the "christian" fundamentalists who hate contraception and sex education that giving teenagers the FACTS about sexual activity is a good thing.