Teen Pregnancy and Syphilis Increase Under “Abstinence Only” Bush, Or… Duh

Filed in National by on July 21, 2009

Like we didn’t see this one coming.

Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US’s major public health body.

In a report that will surprise few of Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

Disease and pregnancy?  Talk about your southern strategy.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (14)

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  1. Bwah ha ha ha . . . The 21%ers are such fucking idiots.

  2. You blame Bush for individual actions like these? Please get real.

    The guy increased federal spending on education by 40% and you still are not happy?

    You think the federal government has any impact on any of these areas? Only a liberal would be so foolish. How many of these impregnated kids or ones with STD’s were attending school? The drop out rate is so high you have no cause and effect relationship.

    The question is what has Obama done to change these events-nothing.
    Mike Protack

  3. cassandra_m says:

    Leaving All of the Children Behind, I guess….

    EDIT: And I’m counting Mr. Shallow Bench as one of the children left behind.

  4. pandora says:

    Sorry, Mikey, if the facts don’t support your theories. Abstinence only has failed.

  5. Reading comprehension is obviously not Protack’s strength:

    According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

    Who was president in 2005? What party pushed abstinence-only sex ed when they took over Congress? I know Republicans want to pretend that Obama retroactively created all existing problems, but we know who is really responsible don’t we?

  6. Art Downs says:

    How many kids who practiced abstinence got pregnant or caught an STD?

    How much AIDS is associated with people not into serial unprotected buggery or use of injected drugs?

  7. pandora says:

    Stop being silly, Art. The real question is: How many kids practice abstinence? Because, let’s face it, these increases in pregnancies and STDs show that your abstinence only ways did not work.

  8. Dave M. says:

    Did teen pregnancy rates drop precipitously just after DV got married?

  9. anon says:

    Well, now that the teenagers can’t go to the mall on weekends…

  10. Art basically wants kids who aren’t abstinent to get diseases or to get pregnant (funny how that falls disproportionately on girls).

  11. Buggery? WTF! Sounds like Art is scared of penises.

  12. Reis says:

    penii?

  13. Art Downs says:

    So what is wrong with the word ‘buggery’?

    Back when David Horowitz was still a California Lib, he mused that the the anonymous anal sex in ‘bath houses’ might have more to do with the spread of AIDS than anything that could be blamed on Ronald Reagan. For suggesting that ‘bath houses’ might be shut down, he was denounced as ‘homophobic’. This may have been a hint that his ideological buddies might be a bit confused.

    What other sexual activity is more associated with the spread of AIDS?

  14. Art Downs says:

    So what is wrong with the word ‘buggery’?

    Back when David Horowitz was still a California Lib, he mused that the the anonymous anal sex in ‘bath houses’ might have more to do with the spread of AIDS than anything that could be blamed on Ronald Reagan. For suggesting that ‘bath houses’ might be shut down, he was denounced as ‘homophobic’. This may have been a hint that his ideological buddies might be a bit confused.

    What other sexual activity is more associated with the spread of AIDS?

    And what about syphilis. There is nearly a 50-1 black v white ratio of incidence of syphilis. Which population is more likely to buy into a message with an alleged ‘Republican seal of approval’. For those who would condemn the bearer of a message that might be deemed less than politically correct, e pur si muove.

    Selling ‘abstinence’ is not likely to be popular given the nature of young human beings (or the old ones still up to it) but when practiced, it does work. Still, even this can be pushed too far. The Shakers believed in lifetime abstinence and there are more examples of their furniture around than true believers.

    Perhaps celibacy is the only unnatural act.