Abstinence? Yeah, That Works...Not!

In a not-surprising story out of Chicago, a group of doctors have found what the rest of us who can actually remember being teenagers knew already:

Abstinence-only sex education DOES. NOT. WORK.

But once again, those of us over here in the Reality-Based Community don't really matter. Not when you have a front-running presidential candidate denying that he descended from an ape (Note to Huckabee: We all deny that, because Darwin never said we did!!!), the BFEE throwing tax dollars at religious organizations faster than they can pick them up, and a teenage birth rate that has gone up for the first time in 14 years:

Average age at first intercourse: Down
Average number of teenagers having sex: Up
Average use of condoms: Down

The only surprising statistic is that the number of abortions has remained steady. Which means that more teenagers are choosing to remain -- or have been forced into remaining -- pregnant, and as any 15-year-old single mother can tell you, from that point on your potential futures have been reduced exponentially, down to a handful at best, and most of them are not good.

And all of it is due to the Rethug radical-fringe religio-fascists who have been pushing abstinence-only sex education, to the exclusion of realistic, We Actually Live On This Planet sex education.

Oh, and do you recall just last year, when Baby Doc said, talking about the fact that as of 2006 the teenage pregnancy rate was still falling slightly: "Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country."

Oh really? What now? I guess he can always blame the Democrats. After all, they took over Congress in January of last year. They must have caused the teenage pregnancy rate to rise. Yeah, that's it.

After all, it couldn't be the Rethugs--they pretty much restrict their sexual contact with teenagers to the boys.