Add an increase in teen pregnancies to the long list of accomplishments under George W. Bush. According to an article in today’s Guardian, teen pregnancies and STD rates rose sharply under the watchful eye of Bush and company.
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.
Of course this should come as no surprise to anyone who was once a teen themselves. Last I checked, teens like to hump. But to Bush and his band of religious blue-ballers the thinking went if we stop teaching em about safe sex and stop providing them with protection then they will stop humping each other. Turns out that was not only wrong but also dangerous.
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.
In the conservative world, access to condoms leads to sexual intercourse. Sex education leads right on down the road to sexual intercourse, sometimes even deviant sexual behavior. If we all just abstain then we can put an end to unnecessary sex and the world will never again know of the scourge that is unwanted pregnancies.
Too bad it doesn’t work out like that. Especially for the teens who practiced unsafe sex because they were too embarrassed or too ashamed to ask someone for protection. Especially for the unborn and just born babies that conservatives spend so much time and energy defending, but so little time caring for them or their mothers once they are actually here. I’m so glad we have an administration who will handle teen sexuality in a grown-up and mature fashion as opposed to the Bush years where we all were urged to close our eyes and wish the problem away.
