Are conservatives or progressives more likely to buy their child birth control at age 13?

[Max_S]

Gyrate wrote:

@Gyrate

Since we’re off on the sex education tangent, I’ll point out that there is little evidence that abstinence-based sex education programs decrease the rate or age of onset of sexual activity in teens compared to comprehensive sex education, and a fair amount to show that it doesn’t. In fact, quite the opposite seems to be true:

Like the Mathematica study, Kirby’s study came to the conclusion that there was no strong evidence that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs delay the initiation of sexual intercourse, hasten the return to abstinence, or reduce the number of sexual partners. The study did find that two-thirds of the comprehensive programs examined had at least one positive sexual behavioral effect. In fact, 40 percent of the comprehensive programs examined achieved the three important effects of delaying the initiation of sexual intercourse, reducing the number of sexual partners, and increasing condom or contraceptive use . For the purposes of this study, abstinence programs were defined as those that encourage and expect young people to remain abstinent, while comprehensive programs are defined as those that “encourage abstinence as the safest choice but also encourage young people who are having sex to always use condoms or other measures of contraception.”

Bolding mine.

Lots of teens are going to have sex whether we want them to or not. Arming them with information about the potential consequences of doing so - and how to mitigate them - is a lot better than deliberately keeping them ignorant and pretending that this will somehow prevent them from having sex (which, when they have it, will be without that full understanding).

My daughter is getting to be “that age”, and while we will very strongly be pushing the message that she should wait until she’s older to have sex, we’re also going to make sure she is properly prepared for when she does. That’s a lot more respectful and responsible - and more likely to ensure that she waits until she’s mature enough - than simply saying “No” over and over.

In other topics: has Claudia Conway actually filed anything yet? I’m not seeing anything.

~Max