I got a kick out of a highly informed, lively discussion on PBS’s long running all women news show, To the Contrary. Showing the relation between falling condom use and abstinence only education, host Bonnie Erbe kept the focus on facts, even as her conservative guests tried to cloud the waters with non-specific generalities.
The abstinence crowd is recruiting hard with the help of, and you’ll love this group’s name, “Parents For Truth.” They are often confused with “Parents for Hugging Kids A Lot,” “Parents For Saluting the Flag” and “Parents For Prayer with Dinner.” An abstinence only ad shows a confused panicky mother on the phone saying, “The school assured us they would stress abstinence.”
Trying to save their profitable piece of the pie, Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association, seemed puzzled people would advocate stop smoking plans, quitting drugs and drinking but “somehow in the topic of sexual activity, we have aimed at something less.”
As if they were the same. Bonnie Erbe put the brakes on the Heritage Foundations Genevieve Wood, when she disregarded taxpayer funded government research for her own, and then blamed Democrat Henry Waxman for only listening to “folks” who were “by and large” pro sex ed.
But my proudest moment was when Avis Jones Deweever, from the National Council of Negro Women, boldly reframed the repressive talk of abstinence with “we’re not telling them how to protect their lives…if it offends you, I’m sorry, it’s more important to save a life.”
It looked like Deweever had these dear conservative women in her headlights.
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