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CNN reported July 11 that according to the National Institutes of Health, U.S. teen pregnancies in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991. Translation: "One-third of girls in the U.S. got pregnant before age 20." In the same article, CNN reported a "striking decrease" in the percentage of eighth graders smoking, down from 10 percent in 1996 to 3 percent in 2007. While federal health experts were at a loss to explain the spike in teen pregnancies, a Centers for Disease Control official said smoking abated due to "efforts convincing kids and adults not to smoke," according to CNN....

It’s the summer of talking about the summer of ‘68. And back during that infamous summer, there was sex — an encyclical on sex, that is: Humanae Vitae, from Pope Paul VI, issued on July 25. Its message is being heard and misheard as much now as then. It would be for the benefit of all — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — to give it a 40th-anniversary look. Even Jessica Valenti, author of the new book He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, might find it more helpful than she’ll care to...

Friend and fellow blogger Dawn Eden, touring Australia for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the country for World Youth Day, reported on her site on Tuesday that she fell prey to the Down Under version of liberal media bias. "A Current Affair," a program on Sky Television that shares the same name and ilk with the Maury Povich program, interviewed Eden, an author and convert to Catholicism, for a segment they labeled "No Sex Pilgrims" (video available here). The Aussie tabloid television reporters who featured her seemed incredulous that anyone in this day and age would live chastely. ...[C]orrespondent Ben...

AT the age of 15, Ruth Russell got the so-called "facts of life" from a teacher at her Adelaide high school. "We were told, 'You will get older and you will become sexually active. That is the way it happens, and when it does, wear a condom. That is the only important thing'."

News Release OFFICE OF MEDIA RELATIONS 703-413-1100 x5117 and 310-451-6913media@rand.org FOR RELEASE Tuesday June 10, 2008 Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth Making a virginity pledge may help some young people postpone the start of sexual activity, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Researchers found that adolescents who made pledges to remain virgins until they are married were less likely to be sexually active over the three-year study period than other youth who were similar to them, but who did not make a virginity pledge, according to the study published online by the Journal of Adolescent...

NEW YORK — News of a cluster of at least 17 pregnant teenagers at a Massachusetts high school recently made headlines around the world, but it came at a time when teen pregnancies and abortions in the United States actually are at their lowest points in 30 years. Pregnancies — whether they end in birth, miscarriage or abortion — among women age 15 to 19 dropped to 72.2 per 1,000 women in 2004, down from a peak of 117 per 1,000 women in 1990, according to the latest data compiled by New York's Guttmacher Institute, which focuses on reproductive health...

An estimated 10 percent of middle and high school students in the Delaware Valley School District are infected with a sexually transmitted disease. About two dozen teenage girls in the district have tested positive for pregnancy. And officials say there's one confirmed case of a student with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in to track down students at risk for HIV, since the infected student is reported to have had multiple sex partners in the district, officials say. School officials released the alarming figures in a letter sent home...

Skeptical states are shoving aside millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity. Barely half the states are still in, and two more say they are leaving.

The Los Angeles Unified School District doesn’t want Karen Kropf talking to its students. District leaders fear that what she says isn’t “balanced” and that she’s not a certified “expert” in the field. Really, though, they just don’t like her message about teenage sexual self-control and the limited protection of condoms. That, and they’re worried about what the ACLU might say, especially given California’s law against “abstinence-only” education.  Investigating Kropf’s situation, I was startled to discover an alarming trend that has gone unreported: The ACLU and Planned Parenthood have teamed up in an aggressive campaign over the past several...

Washington, D.C. - A national campaign is underway to educate parents about the graphic contents of many of the sex-ed programs currently in use in U.S. schools and then empower to bring about change. The campaign, called Parents for Truth, is being organized by the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to enroll 1 million parents within the next three years.  "Parents are being told that the content of the curricula in their children's classrooms stress abstinence but include information to make decisions in case they become sexually active," said Valerie Huber, NAEA executive director....

Parents for Truth aims to recruit 1 million parents over three years to fight groups like Planned Parenthood. The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) has launched a national campaign to educate parents about the harmful information their children are often exposed to in so-called “comprehensive” sex-education classes at school. Parents for Truth will equip parents to fight "comprehensive" sex ed in their children’s schools and promote abstinence-focused sex education.  NAEA Executive Director Valerie Huber said most parents would be shocked to learn what is being taught in "comprehensive" sex-education classes. “ 'Comprehensive' sex education is often very graphic and explicit,”...

Is it possible to discuss teen birth rates without attacking abstinence-only education?  Apparently not for NBC’s Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman. During a May 28 Today show discussion of  high schools providing birth control to teens without parental notification, Snyderman cast doubt on abstinence-only education,  saying, “I don’t think there’s any healthcare professional who says [abstinence education] is the magic bullet and it’s really working.�   School-provided birth control is a hot topic again due to the rising number of teenage pregnancies at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts. Pregnancies at Gloucester High soared from 4 to 17 in one year, spurring...

How much do you know about contraception, STDs, and unintended pregnancies? Take the quiz...

It appears that Barack Obama has survived a tough couple of weeks. In the words of some, he's shown that "he can take a punch." But, frankly, I think Senator Obama is still getting kid gloves treatment from a press corps that tilts left. Despite the hounding about his "bitterness" remarks, and the ongoing story of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, there's been hardly 10 seconds of attention about his incredible statement that he wouldn't want his daughters "punished with a baby" if they "make a mistake." This in a discussion about HIV/AIDS in which he said that contraception should be...

LifeNews.com Note: Roeten is a very conservative Catholic who likes the facts over readily displayed emotions. He is an editorial columnist who has frequently been published in numerous Internet and newspaper forums.It’s been discovered. Nobody thought having “safe sex” was possible in every case. Each year 2.6 million teenagers become sexually active—a rate of 7000/day. With high school, nearly half report having engaged in sexual activity and 1/3 are currently active (Kim/Rector//Heritage Foundation).As it turns out, teen sexual activity is extremely costly for teens and for society as a whole. From 1985-1990 alone, the federal government spent $120 billion...

For more than five decades, self-proclaimed experts and so-called sexual reformers, beginning with Alfred Kinsey, have worked to advance the belief that there are no public consequences to private sexual behavior. And Americans, for the most part, have bought into this notion, proving what Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth!” Historically, most states in the U.S. had legal prohibitions against adultery, often called “crimes against marriage,” which were designed to protect marriage by punishing those who jeopardized the family by seeking sexual satisfaction beyond their spouse. Virtually every advanced civilization has had some form of prohibition...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life group says a pro-abortion Congressman holding a hearing on abstinence education this week has added another speaker in favor of abstinence. However, the Family Research Council says Rep. Henry Waxman's panel is still a one-sided affair. As LifeNews.com reported last week, Waxman planned to invite five witnesses to take the anti-abstinence side in support of comprehensive sex education and just one abstinence proponent.The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman added another pro-abstinence speaker, but also added two additional panel members who will likely oppose abstinence education.FRC president Tony Perkins says, "Waxman...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- During the faith forum at Messiah College on Sunday night, pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made it clear he doesn't support abstinence-only education. Instead, he wants comprehensive sex-ed that includes contraception and birth control. Though unmarried students who have signed a no-sex pledge to remain abstinent until marriage attended the event, Obama said their decision wasn't enough. "What I have consistently talked about is to take a comprehensive approach where we focus on abstinence," he said. "I do believe that contraception has to be part of that education process." Later in the forum, Frank Page...

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) Washington DC, Apr 3, 2008 / 01:40 am (CNA).- Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, reported “compelling” evidence of the success of HIV/AIDS prevention programs that emphasize abstinence and fidelity before resorting to promoting condom use.  According to Smith, 70% of the estimated 33 million people with HIV and 90% of the two million children afflicted with the disease live in sub-Saharan Africa.  Speaking on Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in support of a 2008 bill that would renew the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the congressman...

There was a time when not having sex consumed a very small part of Janie Fredell’s life, but that, of course, was back in Colorado Springs. It seemed to Fredell that almost no one had sex in Colorado Springs. Her hometown was extremely conservative, and as a good Catholic girl, she was annoyed by all the fundamentalist Christians who would get in her face and demand, as she put it to me recently, “You have to think all of these things that we think.” They seemed not to know that she thought many of those things already. At her public...

Kate Walsh: Abstinence-Only "Not Working" Cites One-In-Four Teen Girl STDs Rate In U.S. As Proof Fed-Sponsored Sex Ed Needs Broadening March 28, 2008 Kate Walsh on The Early Show Friday (CBS/EARLY SHOW) (CBS) Actress Kate Walsh is pushing for federal sex education programs to teach strategies beyond abstinence-only. Walsh, who played a doctor on "Grey's Anatomy" and stars in its spin-off, "Private Practice," is a member of the board of advocates of Planned Parenthood, and went to Capitol Hill Thursday to take part in a congressional briefing on sex education. She's been lobbying for sex ed to include birth control...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several dozen members of Congress, all abortion advocates, have signed a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey asking him to cut all funds for abstinence education. They don't want any money spent in the FY 2009 Health and Human Services appropriations bill spent on abstinence. Congressman Jim Moran, a pro-abortion Virginia Democrat, led the letter campaign and gathered the signatures of 76 of his Congressional colleagues. "We urge you to reconsider funding for the [abstinence programs] and to devote those dollars to other more effective programs," the letter reads. They want the money axed...

At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group. A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls — nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. Among girls who...

Julianne Hough of "Dancing with the Stars" wants to remain a virgin until marriage, she tells CosmoGirl magazine. In a recent interview, the 19-year-old spoke of her trouble fitting in with the Hollywood crowd, due to the presence of the drugs, sex and alcohol she refrains from. Hough says she wants "to be with that special person ... and [waiting to have sex] will strengthen that relationship. I'm not trying to preach consequences here, but I think when you say no, down the line it will be a better decision." She admits keeping up with her goals can be difficult...

"Papa loved Mama, so they got married and had babies." Thus does my earnest four-year-old summarize the mysteries of marital love. For scientific purposes that statement is terribly incomplete. For philosophical purposes, it hits the bull's eye. With those words Phil Lawler began a Wall Street Journal op-ed in March of 1996. His child's perspective stands in instructive contrast to an article in today's New York Times titled, "Talking With Children About Sex and AIDS: At What Age to Start?" The answer suggested in the lede is "How about, oh, 4?" The reporter tells us this is the subject...

 We still ask ourselves as Ash Wednesday approaches, "What am I doing for Lent? What am I giving up for Lent?" We can be grateful that the customs of giving up something for Lent and abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent have survived in our secular society. But, unfortunately, it is doubtful that many practice them with understanding. Many perform them in good faith and with a vague sense of their value, and this is commendable. But if these acts of self-denial were better understood, they could be practiced with greater profit. Otherwise, they run the risk of falling...

Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1438: “The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice. Fridays, Lent and Year RoundCanon 1250: “All Fridays through the year and the time of Lent are penitential days and times throughout the entire Church.” U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Penitential Practices for Today’s Catholics:“Fridays During Lent — In the United States, the tradition of abstaining from meat on each Friday during Lent is maintained.“Fridays Throughout the Year — In...

Noting a series of studies that show a decade of abstinence-only education has failed to change teens' sexual behavior, the governor said she is rejecting $1 million in federal abstinence funding. That frees up about $800,000 the state would have used to match the federal dollars, money Napolitano wants targeted at community college students. After a decade of steady declines, Arizona's teen birth rate inched up last year, mostly due to an unprecedented increase in births to 18- and 19-year-olds. "While we all support 'abstinence only' and don't believe particular teenagers ought to be engaging in sexual relations of that...

Seventeen magazine is a great gift to the youth of our nation. Before the magazine's February issue, our nation's adolescent girls were in danger of "accidentally" falling into pregnancy, or so their cover implies: "Shocking Ways You Could Get PREGNANT By Accident." Last time I checked, pregnancy results from an activity that requires some effort, some decision-making. Seventeen's editors, however, don't seem to live in my reality. Instead, It buys into the same dangerous and conventional wisdom that kids will have sex -- end of conversation. So all adults can do is help them prevent disease and pregnancy. A cover...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor January 17, 2008 Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report by an organization affiliated with Planned Parenthood finds that the number of abortions nationwide have fallen to their lowest point in 30 years and have declined 25 percent since 1990. Pro-life groups point to laws limiting abortions, the effectiveness of pregnancy centers and abstinence education as the reason why.

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fifteen states around the union each have scorned as much as half a million dollars in federal education funding because the money would have to go toward abstinence education that excludes a regimen of contraceptive-pushing lessons. The program, forwarded by the Bush administration, is being snubbed by states that are caving to the demands of schools to push contraceptive education as the only effective method for discouraging teen pregnancies. Abstinence programs across the country are distressed at the move by the governors, who don't seem to care about the tens of thousands of...

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071226/edtwo26.art.htm

America is talking about teen pregnancy. Britney Spears's baby sister Jamie Lynn, all of 16, is pregnant. The father, her 19-year-old boyfriend Casey Alridge, who may or may not face statutory rape charges for having sex with a minor, is someone she met at church. Then there is Juno, a satirical comedy about a tortured but well-meaning 16-year-old who gets pregnant and decides to give her baby to a childless couple who later want to divorce. It has been fascinating to watch the debate sparked by these two moms-to-be, with the principal question in each scenario being, "Why didn't she...

Lead Feministing blogger Jessica Valenti, author of Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters, criticizes Abstinence Education in her recent blog post Abstinence-only Education: What we're missing. She makes some valid points, but what most interested me was her citing a 2004 Ms. Magazine article called Virgin Territory--Ms. goes to an abstinence conference and learns that it pays to be chaste. According to the article: "Your body is a wrapped lollipop. "When you have sex with a man, he unwraps your lollipop and sucks on it. "It may feel great at the time, but, unfortunately, when...

The number of states refusing federal money for "abstinence-only" sex education programs jumped sharply in the past year as evidence mounted that the approach is ineffective. At least 14 states have either notified the federal government that they will no longer be requesting the funds or are not expected to apply, forgoing more than $15 million of the $50 million available, officials said. Virginia was the most recent state to opt out. Two other states -- Ohio and Washington -- have applied but stipulated they would use the money for comprehensive sex education, effectively making themselves ineligible, federal officials said....

WASHINGTON, December 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In what came as a shock to some, US First Lady Laura Bush promoted condom use "every time" in the pages of the Washington Post on December 1st. Writing on World AIDS Day Bush urged: "Practice safe sex," and advocated the "correct and consistent use of condoms" which she said, "means not just occasionally, but every time." Of note, Mrs. Bush suggested her approach was following the example of "our African counterparts". She wrote: "Let's take a cue from our African counterparts and follow the ABC method of prevention: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and the...

Rise after 14 years of declines serves notice: Abstinence-only policy can't be trustedAfter 14 years of steady declines, the United States experienced a rise in teen births in 2006. Health experts hope that the 3 percent jump represents a statistical aberration rather than the start of a trend because the 435,000 babies born to teens last year pose a challenge to both the nation and to the young mothers. The implications of a higher teen birth rate are ominous: More low birth-weight babies. An increase in infant mortality. Infants at higher risk for developmental problems. Teen moms dropping out of...

Abstinence stigma is a term coined by Martin Ssempa, an HIV/AIDS prevention educator in Uganda. It means that children who are staying abstinent are made to feel that there is something wrong with them if they are abstinent. This term can aptly be applied to DC youth and the adults supporting them as they are made to feel that there is something wrong with helping youth to stay sexually abstinent and drug free. Dr. Richard Nyankori has decided to selectively eliminate the ULTRA Teen Choice program based on his personal bias against directive abstinence programs. This is indicated by the...

People who start having sex at a younger or older than average age appear to be at greater risk of developing sexual health problems later in life, a new study suggests. The findings, according to researchers, cast some doubts on the benefits of abstinence-only sexual education that has been introduced in U.S. public schools.Using data from a 1996 cross-sectional survey of more than 8,000 U.S. adults, the researchers found that those who started having sex at a relatively young age were more likely to have certain risk factors for sexually transmitted diseases (STD) -- including a high number of sexual...

Opponents of the St. Lucie County School District's controversial sex education curriculum have a message for school board members: Vote "yes" and you can expect to see your picture alongside descriptions of sex acts posted all over town. Bryan Longworth, an associate pastor at a Port St. Lucie church, said he plans to send board members a flier with descriptions taken from the curriculum, called Get Real About AIDS, and space for the picture of anyone who approves it as a "warning." "They need to know that they're not just going to be able to vote for this without anyone...

PRIOR LAKE, Minnesota, November 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After being fired for promoting abstinence among students at the school where he worked, ex school supervisor Chris Lind has been elected to the Prior Lake-Savage district school board in Minnesota. Lind, who was a hallway and parking lot supervisor at a local high school and a "conservative Christian" was told by District Human Resource Director Tony Massaros that he could not discuss abstinence from sexual activity with any students, during or after school hours, on or off campus, according to a friend who witnessed the meeting.  Lind was told that...

Just days after Virginia Governor Timothy M. Kaine announced that he will cut state funding for abstinence education programs, a new study affirmed that such initiatives in the state do work. The study, which will be published in the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of the “American Journal of Health Behavior,” shows that programs by the state health department’s Virginia Abstinence Education Initiative resulted in a “significant reduction in teen sexual initiation.” The Institute for Research and Evaluation evaluated the impact of the programs by examining the behavior of seventh-graders from five different Virginia schools. The study concluded that those students receiving...

Dear xxxxx, Governor Tim Kaine continues to receive attacks from extremists like Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William), Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax) and the Virginia Family Foundation for his decision to cut funding for abstinence-only programs because they are not evidence-based. In her latest email, Victoria Cobb of the Virginia Family Foundation suggests that the Governor's decision was about politics and goes on to malign Planned Parenthood: "The fact is that cutting this funding is nothing more than a political payoff to a liberal group that helps get Democrats elected and worked hard to give the Governor a majority in the...

RICHMOND, Nov. 12 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has cut off state funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, citing recent studies finding that teenagers should also be taught about birth control and condoms to protect against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Kaine (D) submitted plans last month to close a budget shortfall in part by eliminating a $275,000 matching grant for a federal program that provided funds for 14 nonprofit groups that taught abstinence only. Delacey Skinner, Kaine's communications director, said the governor believes that effective sex education programs must include information about contraceptives as well as abstinence. "The...

Critics have long debated the effect on society of overtly sexualized images from television, movies and music. But one medical educator and physician has reached a conclusion: He thinks that because of what we have learned scientifically about the brain and the biochemistry behind sexuality, our sex-obsessed culture may be "warping" the minds of young people. In an exclusive interview with Cybercast News Service, Gary Rose, M.D., president of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin, Tex., talked about his forthcoming book on the neurochemistry of sex. (The Medical Institute for Sexual Health describes itself as a non-profit group...

It is a national trend, one that doesnÂ’t seem to be abating, despite attempts at education, teaching abstinence, birth control, or even abortion. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, of the 1,626 live births in Tom Green County in 2003, 636, or 39.2 percent, were to unwed mothers. That is five percent over the State of Texas average of 34.2 percent. Eighty-four teenagers giving birth are included in that number, and 308 of the mothers, or 19 percent, had late or no prenatal care. The problem does not appear to be abating. The 2006-2007 school year saw...

The head of a group that promotes the teaching of abstinence to young people says a recent poll on public opinion on contraceptives in public schools didn't tell the whole truth.   Last week, Associated Press reported on a study that claimed 67 percent of adults surveyed agreed with the idea of giving out contraceptives to children in public schools. People who find those results somewhat shocking should investigate further, says Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA). She says she wondered how so many people could support the idea of giving birth control to children....

Sacramento, Oct 19, 2007 / 11:01 am (CNA).- According to a study published last month in the Californian Journal of Health Promotion, there were 1.1 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young Californians in 2005, the California Catholic reports.  The figure is ten times higher than previously believed.  If the study is accurate, diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HPV, and HIV now infect almost one out of four Californians in the 15-24 age group.The authors believe that their figures are underestimated because of incomplete screening of sexually active young people and failures in follow-up testing. The...

In the 1990s, amid a growing culture war over the role of religion and morality in public policy, Republicans used their congressional majorities to crank up funding for programs that encouraged teens to abstain from sex until marriage. But now, though Democrats have taken control of Congress, abstinence-only programs are surviving attempts to shut them down. And they could even get an increase with the aid of an unlikely ally: House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.), one of the old liberal lions. "We're expecting funding to be pretty comparable to what it was in the past," said Valerie...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education.Speaking in the northeast town of New Hampton late Friday, Obama responded to a question in a forum from a Denver resident in the first primary state for a family reunion.The questioner asked Obama to reconcile how society gets upset at someone like Michael...