In the Dark About Sex

How many Missouri "pro-life" legislators does it take to screw in a light bulb?
None; they are all in the dark and don't even want to TALK about screwing!

I always knew it was possible that part of my job at an abortion care provider could become illegal, but I never suspected it would be the part we offer free – to PREVENT unwanted pregnancies in the first place. The Missouri legislature passed HB 1055. This action will leave only one place for abortion care in the entire State of Missouri. It will also prevent good sexuality education.  

With the sincere desire to reduce the need for abortion care, I have been a guest speaker on contraception in high schools for 30 years, educating thousands of students about sexualtiy. Missouri just made this illegal

I have a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Human Sexuality and keep up my certification as a sexuality educator through the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT).  

In every classroom I visit, I emphasize abstinence and provide accurate, up-to-date information on contraception in a relaxed, open manner.  The abortion care provider where I work has never charged a dime for this service.

Parents of my teenaged son’s friends have come to me for advice over the years, thanking me for being a resource for their children.  They have expressed their discomfort with the topic and relief that someone with accurate information is available. Parents WANT sexuality education in the schools.

As of August 28th, no one who works with – or refers for – abortion care is allowed into Missouri schools.  Whether you support government mandated childbirth or legal abortion, you should be concerned about this.

This past spring in a classroom, in an attempt to dispel the myth that some males cannot use condoms, I inflated a condom to the size of a watermelon.  One girl looked very puzzled and asked how it could hold the air.  Becoming puzzled myself, I asked her why she thought it couldn’t.  She replied a previous guest speaker told them condoms were porous enough for sperm and diseases to get through!  That speaker, I was told by the teacher, was from the Crisis Pregnancy Center, an organization set up solely to stop abortion.  This new law ALLOWS her inaccurate information to continue....though for the life of me, I cannot see how lying to students about holes in condoms will stop abortion.

Studies show that abstinence only education is a waste of tax dollars. We all like to think we are the exception to the rule, but more than 90% of Americans have sex before marriage -- and have done so for generations.  The Missouri legislature (and recently 6 States in India) are out of step with the long time reality of adolescent sexuality.

•  I don't suppose

  the Governor will have the courage to veto it?  This is the dictionary definition of counterproductive.

  by marykk on Fri May 25, 2007 at 06:26:44 AM PDT

  •  The Republican

    Governor is looking forward to signing it. As always this is not about protecting anyone, it is about the votes.

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 06:29:46 AM PDT

    •  AAAIIIEEEEE!

      'nuff said.

      by marykk on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:19:33 AM PDT

•  Back in the 70's...

  and 80's, I used to do this in Georgia...but Reagan stepped in and we were disinvited.

  HS students learn about the frog's reproductive system but not their own.

  Just say no.

  I guess that solves everything in their simplistic world.

  I say:  Just say ON

  Get ON the pill.
  Put ON a condom.

  by annrose on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:17:03 AM PDT

  •  Just say ON

    is a great way to talk about this.  But the right wingers (who of course never personally have had sex) go ON and ON and ON trying to control every one else's life.  What ARE they so afraid of?

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:31:20 AM PDT

•  The light bulb joke says it all...

  It's disgraceful that legislators pander to a totally misguided and disproven sense of morality around sex, just to get votes.  It seems that people who promote the lie that "ignorance is bliss" do it cynically and knowingly for their own self-interest, on the backs of others' ignorance, reduced power, and resulting suffering.

  Thanks AlliHi for an on-the-ground look at the consequences of ignorance, and what the future of Missouri has in store for its citizens. Plenty more abortions, for starters! (and no place to go to get them...)

  by choice joyce on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:34:42 AM PDT

  •  The problem is

    school boards, editors, politicians, etc. are "afraid" of upsetting folks who claim to have God on their side.  I am certain sexuality is a gift from God.  It is way past time for educated, thinking folks to push back. I am proud to call myself "pro-choice." People who use junk science to support their backwards views are the ones who should be embarassed and hesitant to speak out!

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:45:31 AM PDT

    •  The problem, as you point out,

      The problem, as you point out, is religious fanaticism, and the more it is pandered to, the more its menace grows.

      I am certain sexuality is a gift from God.

      I once actually heard a RC priest claim that "God" made sex pleasurable to test the "spiritual strength" of people to resist "sin."

      I'm glad that I, along with the vast majority of us, have failed that "test."

      by Beket on Tue May 29, 2007 at 08:17:46 AM PDT

•  thank you

  Thank you for the important work you do. It's hard enough to give accurate medical information to teens (and adults) and it makes it that much harder when you have to first correct all the bizarre myths they have picked up first. The use of accurate information and evidence should not be a partisan issue--it should be a common goal. It's become partisan only because the Republicans have worked so hard to undermine honesty and accuracy.

  Societies have tried to use ignorance and fear as contraception time and time again. It has disastrous results.

  It's interesting though. They are also prohibiting the only programs that have been shown to increase abstinent behavior. None of the abstinence-only programs do this but several comprehensive ones do! The Children's Aid Society/Carrera program results in delayed onset of sexual activity, better use of contraception and condoms, and decreased teen pregnancy. Why don't the republicans like this? Because CAS refuses to lie to teens.

  by LisaLL on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:51:20 AM PDT

  •  The Carrera program

    is an excellent one!  If our government funded it as well as they do the watse-of-time-and-money abstinence only programs and crisis pregnancy centers we could reduce the need for abortion care dramatically!

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 08:30:35 AM PDT

    •  i know!

      I know! Really, this kind of thing tells me that they aren't even all that interested preventing abortions (by preventing the need for many abortions), unintended pregnancies or even increasing abstinent behavior.

      If they cared about reducing the number of abortions, they'd be promoting contraception.

      If they cared about protecting the lives and health of women, they'd be working to keep abortion care legal and accessible.

      If they cared about increasing abstinent behavior, they'd be supporting the comprehensive sex-ed programs that do that.

      For the Republican/Conservative leaders--it isn't about any of that. This is about punishing people for sex. And lying to do so, if they must, to keep the masses of people supporting them.

      by LisaLL on Fri May 25, 2007 at 10:43:20 AM PDT

      •  Could this be a tipping point?

        It may take some time for word to get out about the mess Missouri has created, but certainly rational people will realize shoving heads into the sand is not the way to solve this problem.

        by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 01:48:39 PM PDT

•  Yet another example of the

  conservative right's attempts to get into our bedrooms.  Keep up the good work AlliHi, those kids need you now more than ever.

  by docswede on Fri May 25, 2007 at 08:26:38 AM PDT

  •  Flushing pills down a toilet

    solves nothing.  Yet, how many times have we seen a young woman for abortion care whose mother has done just that.  I want the right wing to know just how much business they CREATE for abortion care providers!

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 08:34:35 AM PDT

•  Do we know if this is going to be challenged?

  Is there a chance that this law will be challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights or Planned Parenthood?  

  We continued to be plagued by Crises Pregnancy Centers spreading misinformation and receiving federal and state funding to do it.  Under this current "regime" we seem hell-bent on spreading this misinformation.  Why do we allow this?  Why does the press not report on this?  

  This bill is awful in that it has two major things going on.  One is the education part you raise...which is really horrible AND it also is forcing clinics to attempt to meet ambulatory surgical regulations.  The purported "intent" is protecting women's health, not limiting abortion provision.  Statistically I would guess, that the number of abortion complications happening in the state of Missouri mirrors that of the nation, which is nil.  There is no "real" problem here so whose "health" are we protecting? And if "abortion clinics" are required to meet these requirements then shouldn't oral surgeons and others out there performing minor surgery in an "outpatient" environment meet these requirements as well?  Can we statistically compare complications rates?  Are most people aware just how safe abortion care is these days?  Is this one of things we don't want folks to know?

  "Women's health" is being used by politicians as a smoke screen for clinic regs and for these insane "right to know" laws which are sweeping the country in wild abandon.  

  Our politicians have relinquished abortion care AND legitimate information over and over.  Where is the political leadership on this issue?  Where is the press?  Why does no one realize this systematic "quiet war on abortion care and factual information" is hurting women and their families?

  This bill is worth a good editorial at least because it is an excellent example of hurting abortion care in the state of Missouri WHILE limiting information on how not to get pregnant.  Ok great!  Let them get pregnant and have their babies!  The state of Missouri renders many women mothers against their will...all in the name of protecting women's health.  Through the Looking Glass we go folks...

  by Readrock on Fri May 25, 2007 at 08:51:57 AM PDT

  •  Don't know yet about a challenge;

    explorations in progress.  

    The political leadership on this is Republican!  They are focused on gay marriage and abortion as moral issues when they should be focused on moral issues like healthcare, childcare and war.  

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 09:40:01 AM PDT

•  MO limits abortion care and pregnancy prevention!

  This Missouri legislation really points out the irony of regulating abortion care (requiring all clinics meet ambulatory surgical treatment center
  requirements) regardless of the reality of the safety of current abortion care AND the limiting of knowledge available to prevent pregnancy at the same time.  So this really demonstrates what we have been saying for a while now, the antis are not interested in allowing women access to pregnancy prevention, at the same time they are limiting abortion care while stating they are protecting women's health.

  This legislation has received little publicity and there has been no organizational or political outcry.  Where are the Dems, folks?  More capitulation?  What will it take before we wake up and stop this assault on women?

  by Readrock on Fri May 25, 2007 at 12:21:49 PM PDT

  •  As we head off to BBQ this long weekend, we need

    to all be talking to friends and family about the dire consequenses of allowing this type of censorship and hypocracy to continue.  

    No matter what YOU would do if faced with an unintended pregnancy, do you really want the law to be government mandated childbirth for all and no information or misinformation to prevent pregnancy?

    by AlliHi on Fri May 25, 2007 at 01:55:50 PM PDT

•  Southern states

  TRAP laws and withholding sexuality education from students has been the order of the day for some years in most of the southern states.
  Proving again the determination of the voters (who elect these yahoos in the lege) to remain and keep the majority of the population poor and ignorant.  All in the name of some corrupt version of christianity- which isn't even supposed to be crossed into public schools in the first place!  
  We owe this generation this information and education- which can save their very lives, not to mention their futures.
  When they're older and wiser and realize education and information that could have saved their lives/ futures was withheld- how can that possibly be justified?  
  What kind of christian could possibly want to do such a thing to our children who are our future?  Do they really think its 'godly'?
  WWJD?  I can't imagine he would condone these kinds of actions that cost our childrens lives and health!  Not any kind of spirituality or Christianity that I'm familiar with- but then I'm an old mainstream protestant.
  Wonderful work Alihi- please keep on keeping on.

  by Womantrust on Fri May 25, 2007 at 07:38:12 PM PDT

•  Abortion, Safe, legal and unavailable

  The move to make abortion facilities meet the standards of Surgery Centers is totally unnecessary unless they are using general anesthesia (which most do NOT).  This requirement is an underhanded move by politicians to make the provision of abortion care so expensive and so dificult that it will become unavailable.  This new law in MO will leave ONLY ONE abortion facility in the entire state.  Regulations should be changed ONLY if there is a CLEAR IMPROVEMENT in the quality of care.  The current restrictions in MO make just as much sense as would requiring a complete strip search prior to boarding an airliner.  It would increase cost, increase delays, and aggravate a lot of people without providing ANY benefit.  

  Most abortion facilities have been operating safely for many years.  The prior level of regulation was more than adequate.  "If if ain't broke, don't fix it."  But the current government seems to take the attitude that "if it ain't broke, fix it until it is."

  by SinCityGYN on Sat May 26, 2007 at 03:38:05 PM PDT