The End of Abstinence-Only Un-education

Many years ago, mine was one of the first sixth-grade classes in Kentucky to be taught sex education in public school.

It wasn't much - reproductive anatomy mostly, heavy on the infamous V of the uterus and giving the impression no drawings were available of an adult human penis. Menstruation but no wet dreams. Disembodied egg and sperm uniting, glossing over how they happened to find themselves in the same convenient fallopian tube. Growth stages of the fetus, from clump of cells through the fetal pig we had just finished dissecting (yes, sex ed was taught in science class), to birth. Ta-da!

Nothing about masturbation, intercourse, oral sex, contraception, abortion or homosexuality. Venereal disease mentioned as something to be avoided, but never really explained. Planned Parenthood never mentioned, although word got around: free birth control pills at the Health Department.

But no lies. No lectures about morality, purity or virginity. No forced promises to abstain. No ludicrous fantasies about pre-marital sex making you suicidal, ugly, poor and branded sub-human forever.

No lies. The freakazoids kept to their repressed, superstitious, Dark Ages, miserable selves and didn't meddle in public education.

But with Reagan, the New Inquisition arrived, and reached its Torquemada peak under Smirky/Darth. America went from a nation whose teenagers initiated sex with at least a semblance of knowledge and easily available contraceptives to a nation whose teenagers initiated sex in horrifically dangerous ignorance.

No more. The Democratic 2009 budget in Congress takes a long-overdue ax to abstinence-only un-education.

... the spending bill -- which increases spending levels between now and October by $20.5 billion -- includes a flurry of provisions reversing controversial Bush-era policies on abstinence-based sex education.

The Democratic spending plan cuts total funding for abstinence education by $14.2 million, compared with the previous year, and trims Bush's total abstinence-ed request by $42 million. General family-planning aid has been increased by $7.5 million. The spending bill also specifies that any competitive grants awarded to abstinence-ed programs "shall be scientifically accurate" and that "none of the funds made available in this Act may be used to disseminate scientific information that is deliberately false or misleading."

SNIP

The Democratic spending plan also contains a provision ensuring that no future administration can gag its scientists from testifying truthfully before Congress (as the Bush team sought to do on climate change). The bill states that

scientific information, including such information provided in congressional testimony, requested by the Committees on Appropriations and prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted to the Committees on Appropriations, uncensored and without delay.

It's too late for Victims of Superstition and Repression like Bristol Palin, but at least now we can start to make sure that hers was the last generation to be taught that condoms cause AIDS.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....