Federal courts block Trump Adminstration's attempt to cut grants to Planned Prenthood's pregnancy prevention programs.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting short grants awarded to Planned Parenthood through a federal teen pregnancy prevention program. 

U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice on Tuesday issued a permanent injunction preventing the administration from ending the grants two years earlier than originally planned, saying that doing so would cause public harm. 

"The Court determines that the public interest weighs in favor of Plaintiffs, as it would prevent harm to the community ... and prevent loss of data regarding the effectiveness of teen pregnancy prevention," Rice wrote. 

Planned Parenthood sued the administration after it ended Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants for 81 organizations across the country last summer. 

The grants were originally supposed to run through 2020, but the administration said the grants would end in 2018 instead, arguing that the program was ineffective. 

The program, created under former President Obama, funded organizations working to cut teen pregnancy rates and mostly focused on comprehensive sex ed, which can include contraception and abstinence teachings.

Of course this is a program created during the Obama Administration because Trump is laser focused on undoing EVERYTHING that Obama accomplished during his two terms in office. 

And he doesn't care who it hurts.

President Obama's 2017 budget cuts all funding to Abstinence Only education in this country.

Just a little something I threw together for the kids.

Courtesy of SEICUS:  

Earlier today, February 9, 2016, the president released his fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget, the final budget of his administration, which continues to demonstrate his strong commitment to supporting the sexual health of our nation’s youth through age-appropriate, medically accurate, and science-based programs. In addition, the President has shown leadership in efforts to rid our nation of abstinence-only-until-marriage (AOUM) funding once and for all by not only eliminating the competitive AOUM program, but also including a legislative proposal to eliminate the Title V AOUM state grant program currently authorized at $75 million for FY 2017. 

Choosing instead to focus on investing in programs that support youth access to the information and education they need to lead sexually healthy lives, the president’s FY 2017 budget request proposes increased investment in the Office of Adolescent Health’s (OAH) Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPPP) and maintains current funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH).

Can I just mention how great it is to have a President to recognizes science and understands that shaming teenagers into not having sex has NEVER been an effective method of preventing teen pregnancy or the spread of disease.

Of course as we know this is the very same budget that the Republicans rejected before they even saw it.

Still if the President manages to make these changes, and let's face it he is getting more done these days than ever before, it will be good news indeed for the young people of this country.

Okay well maybe not ALL of the young people of this country.

But let's face it, it's too late for this one anyway.

Nancy French says something ignorant while wearing her Bristol Palin skin suit and gets mocked by the media. It must be a day ending in a "y."

Courtesy of Bristol's fish lip photo depository.

To be honest I kind of read this post a few day ago and went "meh." I mean sure it's stupid, but since it was written by Nancy French, and not the fish lip selfie taker, I was not sure it was worthy of my precious time and energy. (That's right "precious.")

However as it turns out others were not similarly inclined. So now it's news, of a sort.

So here we go.

First off you should know that this is a rant about a program in Washington which mimics a HIGHLY successful program in Colorado that saw teen pregnancies drop by a whopping 42%.

However since this is Nancy French who is pro-everybody get should get pregnant advocate Sarah Palin's ghost typist, the facts were somewhat misrepresented. To put it mildly.

Do you remember what it was like to be a 10 year old? I remember being an unabashed tomboy concerned with playing outside and acing 5th grade. 

But life isn’t so innocent and carefree for some 10 years old in Washington State. This summer a report came out claiming that some schools in Washington were giving free birth control implants to children as young as 10 years old! These birth control devices are implanted in a girl’s uterus, and all of this can be done without a parent’s consent!

So if that sounds wrong to you it's because of course it is.

French also goes on to make this claim:

It is crazy that the government is offering a controversial form of birth control that can have serious life-long side effects to 10-year-old CHILDREN, but then to do all of this behind a parent’s back is simply outrageous!

Now if anybody should recognize crazy it would be Nancy French, however facts are another issue altogether. As the folks over at Raw Story pointed out: 

Palin’s anger was directed toward the Take Charge program, a state Medicaid initiative that provides birth control at no cost for adults without health insurance, as well as to underage girls. She did not mention that it is legal in Washington — as it is in 11 other states — for minors to obtain birth control without either parents’ consent or an exemption from a judge. 

The daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) also repeated the conservative claim that Take Charge was offering intra-uterine devices (IUDs) to 10-year-old girls, citing a report by the conservative site Judicial Watch making the same claim. 

However, the report Palin cited did not offer any specific statistics showing that 10-year-olds were getting the devices. Instead, it noted that only four 11-year-olds received birth control from state officials between 2013 and earlier this year. By comparison, 2,336 girls between 16 and 17 years old — the same age Palin was during her first pregnancy — received IUDs during the same period. 

Palin’s argument that IUDs can have “life-long side effects” was also debunked in 2012, when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists determined that they were safe for use by teens.

So we have misrepresentation, followed by exaggeration,  followed by faux outrage. Yep that is a SarahPAC funded screed if ever we've heard one.

This same story was also covered by Wonkette (Who had a field day with it.), the Inqusitr, Jezebel, and the Huffington Post.

A number of them also referenced Bristol's past "work" as an abstinence spokesperson, as well as the fact that she is currently knocked up again.

Ultimately it once again shows Bristol to be an ill informed hypocrite, who is lecturing the country about teen pregnancies and birth control while still living off the proceeds from her own famous teen pregnancy and avoidance of birth control.

And since I have not mentioned it for awhile let's all remember that Bristol chose to get pregnant with Tripp, he was NOT an accident, and that she may have had numerous un-publicized pregnancies in the years since.

Or else she was raiding Dunkin Donuts, Taco Bell, and Chick-fil-a, every night after DWTS rehearsals.

Once again it is almost impossible to feel badly for Bristol (Especially if you know what I know about her.), however the fact that her mother continually opens her up to ridicule like this is a kind of hateful parental abuse that one does not see very often.

You might even begin to think that Sarah despises her oldest daughter.

Hmm, perhaps that is why we have not heard her brag about becoming a grandmother yet again?

Could this company have been inspired by Sarah Palin?

Courtesy of The Washington Post: 

“Need a bun in the oven?” says the Web site “Fake a Baby.com. “We can help.” Billing itself as the “Home of the $9.95 fake Ultrasound,” it purports to sell the “Best Gag Gifts on Earth.” 

The article goes on to describe how a Michigan teenager used the products she purchased from the website to fool her sixteen year old boyfriend and her whole family into believing that she was pregnant with triplets.

The website offers just about everything you would need to pull off a fake pregnancy: 

Its wares include the “Silicon [sic] Fake Pregnancy Belly-Twins,” reduced in price from $299.95 to $149.99; the “Silicon Fake Pregnancy Belly” for the “20 to 25 week stage to the 38 weeks stage,” and “Silicone Breast Pushups” in a variety of colors. 

And, of course, “Fake Ultrasound Sonograms, Personalized,” and “personalized fake prescription” bottles.

The only thing it does not offer is a baby, which is what eventually derailed the Michigan teen's deception.

If only she could have had the resources of a certain half term governor we know perhaps she would be living the dream right now.

But hey, babies don't grow on trees do they?

Sarah Palin in Juneau, March 26th 2008.

Nor for that matter in stomachs that are this flat twenty three days before supposedly giving birth.

Hey you know Palin does not have a lot going on right now, perhaps she could get a gig as a spokesperson for this website?

After all is there anybody on the planet who knows more about how to use a fake pregnancy to get what you want than Sarah Palin?

I think not.

MTV star and sex education vlogger addresses Bristol Palin's most recent pregnancy.

Courtesy of MTV:  

Bristol Palin, the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, travels around the country getting paid (a lot) to speak about abstinence, and it was recently revealed that she’s accidentally pregnant. For the second time. 

On this week’s episode of “Braless,” Laci Green discusses Bristol and the dangers of abstinence-only sex-ed. “The fact that Bristol is pregnant AGAIN is a massive face-palm of hypocrisy,” Laci says, “but it also stands as yet another testament to how well abstinence-only programs really work. …It nearly always fails people who need it the most — including Bristol herself.”

Laci Green is a rather well known video blogger, or "vlogger," who focuses on sex and sex education.

I thought what she had to say about abstinence, and Bristol Palin in particular, was very interesting because she is essentially speaking for, and to, the same demographic that the folks who paid Bristol were hoping SHE would reach.

As Green points out abstinence only sex education is really an anti-sex campaign masquerading as health campaign.

Bristol Palin's message to her critics is childish, as usual.

Courtesy of Brancy's blog:  

This is still how much I care about anything negative … 

#prolife ❤️ God is good, happy Friday!!

Oh look she even got a pro-life pander in there. 

Cause remember she's not a former abstinence spokesperson who is publicly knocked up again without benefit of a spouse because she is a slut who doesn't understand how birth control works. She's a former abstinence spokesperson who is publicly knocked up again without benefit of a spouse because she is a good Christian who supports a pro-life agenda.

So there !

Sadly for her not a whole lot of people are buying it.

In response to her demand for "no lectures" Slate decided to tally up some of the times that she, and her ghostwriter Nancy French, felt free to lecture....well just about everybody.

And the International Business Times decided to focus on the amount she hypocritically made as a spokesperson for abstinence.

However on the plus side Candies. who paid Bristol for telling women that becoming a teen mother was bad while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars for being a teen mother, are standing by her:

"In 2011, when she was just 19, Bristol Palin was enormously helpful to The Candie's Foundation in our mission to educate teenagers about the devastating consequences of teen pregnancy." 

That is CYA 101.

You know I think that if you believe that Bristol Palin convinced even one teenage girl that getting pregnant was not glamorous and a ticket to fame and fortune you are a special kind of stupid. 

By the way Wasilla folks (Or Palin family members who are tired of this shit.) if you happen to know who the daddy is, I know some tabloids who are willing to pay big bucks for that information. 

Colorado proves that education, not slut shaming, is the best way to prevent teen pregnancies.

Courtesy of Pew Charitable Trusts:  

President Barack Obama hailed a landmark achievement in his State of the Union address last month: Teen pregnancies in the U.S. have hit an all-time low. But the U.S. still has a teen birthrate of 31.2 per 1,000 teens, nearly one-and-a-half times the rate in the United Kingdom, which has one of the highest rates in Western Europe. 

Colorado may have found a way to close the gap. The state’s teen birthrate dropped 40 percent between 2009 and 2013, driven largely by a public health initiative that gives low-income young women across the state long-acting contraceptives such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormonal implants. 

Backed by $23.5 million from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Colorado attracted national recognition for its program after Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper announced the results of a cost-savings study last summer. The state saved $42.5 million in 2010 alone, an average return of $5.85 in avoided Medicaid costs for prenatal, delivery and first year of infant care for every $1 spent on the program. 

More important, Hickenlooper said, the initiative “has helped thousands of young Colorado women continue their education, pursue their professional goals and postpone pregnancy until they are ready to start a family.”

But wait, according to the conservatives the best way to avoid teen pregnancy is by keeping sex ed out of public school classroom, get rid of Planned Parenthood, and dress your daughters like puritans?

So gee simply educating both teen boys and teen girls about sex and providing access to birth control can bring teen pregnancy rates down by almost half, and allow young women to live full and productive lives while choosing parenthood on THEIR terms.

Whoda thunk it?

Colorado's teen birth rate drops 40% after they decided to offer free birth control. Go figure.

Courtesy of CNN:

Colorado's teen birth rate dropped 40% between 2009 and 2013, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment announced this week, in part due to a program that provides long-acting contraception to low-income women. 

Colorado's Family Planning Initiative provided funding for 68 family clinics across the state to offer around 30,000 intrauterine devices and implants to young women at low or no cost. An IUD is a small T-shaped device that is inserted into the uterus by a doctor. They're either wrapped in copper or contain hormones, which kill sperm and make the uterine lining too thin for egg implantation. Because IUDs stay in place for five to 10 years, they're easier to comply with than taking daily birth control pills. 

An anonymous donor funded the $23 million initiative, which also provided training, outreach and technical assistance to clinics statewide. 

The state health department conducted a study, to be published in the fall issue of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, to analyze the program's impact. It found that the low-cost IUDs were a significant factor in the state's overall decrease in teen births.

According to the study the number of women choosing IUD's for their contraception needs, quadrupled, and Colorado went from being ranked 29th lowest in the teen birth rate, to being ranked the 19th lowest.

What's more the 75% of the decline was attributed to the clinics offering access to the free or low cost birth control.

Wait, are we to believe that offering teenagers a safe effective means of birth control works better than simply slut shaming young girls and telling them that they are sinners for having normal biological feelings?

Hmm, now where did I get the idea that only abstinence was the right way to deal with teen sex?

Hang on, it will come to me.

Oklahoma county introduces science based comprehensive sex education, teen birth rate drops 20 percent in one year. Funny how that works.

Courtesy of Tulsa World:  

Tulsa County’s teen birth rate fell 20 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to statistics released recently by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. 

That far outpaced the rate statewide, where the rate fell 9 percent, according to the department. 

Kim Schutz, executive director of the Tulsa Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, said programs such as evidence-based, comprehensive sex education at schools have helped teenagers in Tulsa County get the messages needed to prevent pregnancy, she said. 

“It comes down to teens making better decisions,” she said. 

The teen birth rate in Tulsa County was 37.5 per 1,000 teenage girls ages 15 to 19 in 2013, down from 46.8 per 1,000 the year before, Schutz said.

Not exactly shocking to learn that having comprehensive sex education has a bigger impact on preventing teen pregnancy than simply telling kids to say no.

Of course you cannot tell some people that.

 Good for Tulsa County in embracing an educational program that actually helps their community rather than one that is supported by religious fundamentalists who believe that virginity is more precious than gold and that sex is something women must endure in order to trap a husband and live in an upscale neighborhood.

Mississippi abstinence only sex education course compares girls to dirty peppermint patties. No longer "clean and valuable" after she had been handled.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Marie Barnard was delighted when, after decades of silence on the topic, Mississippi passed a law requiring school districts to teach sex education. But the lesson involving the Peppermint Pattie wasn't what she had in mind for her sons. 

The curricula adopted by the school district in Oxford called on students to unwrap a piece of chocolate, pass it around class and observe how dirty it became. 

"They're using the Peppermint Pattie to show that a girl is no longer clean or valuable after she's had sex — that she's been used," said Barnard, who works in public health. "That shouldn't be the lesson we send kids about sex." 

She and other parents lobbied the district to teach about contraception, not just abstinence. After all, as she and other parents noted, 76% of Mississippi teenagers report having sex before the end of high school. 

Mississippi has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, with 50 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in 2011 — compared with 31 per 1,000 nationally. A third of all babies born in Mississippi are to teenage mothers. Access to contraceptives is low, especially in some rural areas where drug stores have been known to refuse to sell condoms to minors. 

Once again it is so helpful of religion to forever leave the burden of chastity with the woman, while giving men a free pass.

A girl who engages in consensual sex before marriage, is a dirty piece of mint filled confection, that is now all disgusting and unfit for love. While a man who sticks his willie in every piece of tail that passes his way, is considered experienced and celebrated by his peers.

A boy who has sex becomes a man. A girl who does the same becomes a slut.

In this day and age the hypocrisy is almost impossible to believe, and yet in some communities it as unchanged as it was back in the days when young men bartered with fathers for the virginity of their daughters, as one would barter for a for any other piece of property or livestock.

However there are a valiant few who desperately try to bring the ignorant into the 21st Century with the rest of us.

Sanford Johnson, deputy outreach coordinator for Mississippi First, an education policy group, encountered these values while addressing the school board in Hollandale, a dusty, rural community with a dilapidated downtown of shuttered stores and peeling paint. 

Johnson thought he had made a good case for contraception education when he shared disturbing statistics: The local birthrate was 73 out of 1,000 females between 15 and 19; the national rate is 29.4 per 1,000. 

He encountered the usual gasps of shock when he revealed that the rate of chlamydia, at 1,346.8 per 100,000 people, was nearly double the rest of Mississippi, and approaching triple the U.S. rate. 

But later Johnson got a call from someone who had attended the board meeting — telling him that people who have sex before marriage don't go to heaven. The board voted for abstinence-only. 

 "People who have sex before marriage don't go to heaven."

And that my friends is when you stand up and walk away.

Because despite the rash of teen pregnancies and the chlamydia epidemic there is no hope of convincing these idiots of anything.

For them all they need to know about love, marriage, and sex, is contained in a misogynistic text, written thousands of years ago, by a group of men who clearly feared and despised women. 

Rachel Maddow reports on the devastating consequences of parental consent regulations for one pregnant sixteen year old foster child in Nebraska.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Too young to be trusted with the decision to terminate her pregnancy, but not too young to give birth and raise a child. That is some fascinating logic there Nebraska.

Of course the Fundies will helpfully suggest that this young woman simply carry the child to term and then give it up for adoption, thereby reducing her to breeding stock and providing yet another poor innocent mind for the religious zealots to mold and manipulate.

Oklahoma ditches their abstinence only sex education program due to increase in swollen bellies.

Courtesy of Addicting Info:  

Long one of the most conservative states in the nation, Oklahoma is one state that has steadfastly refused to implement comprehensive sex education that includes contraception. Instead, Republicans in the state have advocated for abstinence-only plans that have been proven not to work time and time again. And because of that epic failure, one school district is defying the GOP. 

In a move that is certain to draw the ire of the Christian Right, the Tulsa Public School district is ditching abstinence-only programs and will begin teaching comprehensive sex education to 7th, 9th, and 11th grade. And why is Tulsa doing this, you ask? Because abstinence-only is a total failure that has resulted in the state having the fourth highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, resulting in nearly half of all impregnated teens not graduating from high school. This, in turn, hurts Tulsa and the state because these young women don’t have the education they need to get good paying jobs which causes a higher need for welfare.

Tulsa Public Schools spokesman Steve Mayfield told Tulsa’s Channel 9 News that “forty-four percent of students who become pregnant or who are married at that age fail to graduate from high school, and that’s something that affects them for the rest of their life.” 

Many of these teens end up being single mothers who lack the resources and education to get a well-paying job that helps them raise their child. About a quarter of young unmarried mothers end up in poverty, and poverty is itself a cause of teen pregnancy. It’s a vicious cycle that Republicans don’t seem to care about. But educators in Tulsa seek to end it by actually teaching sex education that really does work. 

I know, can you believe it? Apparently simply telling teenagers to "just say no" is not enough to  tamp down raging hormones, and prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Gee, who'da thunk it?

Besides how could a program fail with this person working as their spokesperson?

Such an inspiration.

Seriously it is about damn time that these idiots recognized that helping teens make safe choices when it comes to exploring their sexuality, will keep them safe and child free, without having to resort to shaming them or making them feel like they have offended God for acting on their very human impulses.

Good for Oklahoma for finally recognizing the obvious. 

Having cashed the check, Bristol Palin decides to bite all over the hand that fed her. (Well at least helped her get a new pontoon boat.)

You know you would have thought that Bristol would have watched the "Celebrity Wife Swap" episode  she appeared in with Joan and Melissa Rivers a long time ago, but apparently she is just now getting around to it.

At least that's what I assume considering that THIS just showed up on Brancy's blog: 

I appreciate all the love and comments I’ve been getting about my time on Wife Swap – it seemed like many of you really enjoyed seeing Melissa Rivers and me switching lives! Through Twitter and Facebook, I’ve gotten some questions about the show. 

But by far, I was asked most of all about the moment Joan Rivers said this in an off camera interview: 

“Don’t play the victim… In my generation, Tripp would be called illegitimate. Bristol would be called the little whore down the block.” 

When I first saw this, I have to be honest… it was pretty shocking. Joan has criticized me and my family before. She has called my mom a “Nazi,” “crazy,” “stupid,” and “a threat.” 

She has called me an “old horse,” “stupid,” and said things about my weight. I guess we can add “whore” to the list. But isn’t it funny how Joan suddenly goes all 1950s when it suits her? In her comedy routines, she mentions any sort of sexual thing to shock the audience. But when she wants to insult me, she suddenly has the sexual standards of a “Leave it to Beaver” episode. Anyway, I have addressed my pregnancy many times in public. I’m thankful for a God who forgives and loves. 

On Wife Swap, however, she went a step too far by attacking my son Tripp. 

It’s just wrong to call a child something like “illegitimate” on national television. Life is tough, and not everyone is born into the perfect family home life. But my son is not “illegitimate.” He’s legitimately amazing. I like to say, “just because a kid is born into a broken family doesn’t mean the child is broken.” 

All life is precious… And Tripp is a definitely a blessing from God.

Okay I read Joan's comment a few times to see if I had missed something, but I don't think I did.

All Joan did was to demonstrate frustration that somebody who has led SUCH a privileged life goes around playing the victim. And she is right, Bristol got to be the Queen of Abstinence, after the birth of Tripp, due to her mother's name and influence, whereas MOST teen mothers (ALL of them in Joan's day), would have been shamed and made to feel dirty for getting knocked up at her age. (Not to mention the first time she got knocked up, but let's not go there.)

And by the way if somebody does NOT want to be called a whore on national television it might be a good idea to stay OFF of national television.

Because as all of US well know what Joan said pales in comparison to the kinds of things that are said about Bristol on social media sites all over the internet.

Personally I applaud Joan for telling an obvious truth, and screw Bristol for acting all hurt about it almost an entire month after it was broadcast on television just to drum up sympathy and once again play the Palin victim card.

P.S. For those who want to know where Joan actually said those words it is on the very end of this segment.

Experts attribute lowest number of California teen births in 20 years to sex education course in high school. Fundamentalists respond by plugging their ears and yelling "We can't hear you!"

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

California’s teen birth rate has plummeted to the lowest level that it’s been in the past 20 years, according to new data from the state’s health department. The state’s rate now stands at 28 births for every 1,000 teenage girls — a 60 percent drop since 1991, when the rate peaked at 70.9 births for every 1,000 girls. 

Public health experts directly attribute this success to state laws that require California’s public schools to offer comprehensive sex ed classes with scientifically accurate information about birth control. State officials also credited family planning programs that provide community-based resources to teens. “We do believe that our programs are behind these numbers,” Karen Ramstrom, the chief of the program standards branch at the California Department of Public Health’s maternal child and adolescent health division, told the Los Angeles Times. 

That’s in line with national trends. As a whole, the United States’ teen pregnancy rate has been plummeting to record lows, largely because teens are gaining better access to contraceptive methods and opting to use birth control as soon as they become sexually active. And research suggests that community-based youth programs are one of the most effective strategies of instilling teens with healthy attitudes and safe approaches toward sexuality. 

But progress in this area isn’t uniform across every area of the country. While states like California are making huge gains, the teen pregnancy rate remains stubbornly high in the South. Adolescents there tend to receive ineffective abstinence education, and they’re more likely to lack access to birth control resources.

Gee who da thunk it?

Providing comprehensive education AND access to birth control actually LOWERS the teen birth rate? Amazing.

As we well know these statistics will have little impact on the conservatives whose four part strategy will essentially remain, "No, no, no don't do that!"

Followed by, "Oh well now you've done it!"

And then of course, "Nope, gotta have it!"

And then finally, "No we will not help you. We only care about the fetus BEFORE it is born. Good luck slut"

Texas Republican states, on audio, that attending a sex education class taught by Planned Parenthood gets kids "hot and bothered" and results in pregnancy.

Courtesy of Little Green Footballs:

Check out the audio clip of the conversation among state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, and state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. The three were speaking just minutes after the House State Affairs Committee approved legislation with extreme abortion restrictions that could cause most of the state’s clinics to close. Rep. Howard was explaining to her colleagues that responsible sex education, including information on birth control, would lower the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. Rep. Toth didn’t agree: 

“My wife worked at a home for unwed moms, and one of the little kids that was born, his name is David. David came about as a result of his mom and dad, who were just 16 at the time, going to a Planned Parenthood deal where they taught them how to use contraceptives. They were not sexually active at that point. They got into the car, and they were so hot and bothered from this deal, he couldn’t even get the condom on.” 

If you listen to the rest of the clip, you’ll hear an exasperated Rep. Howard asking her colleagues to move beyond absurd anecdotes and provide some real data to back up their arguments. Needless to say, they have no data to provide. Rep. Toth and Rep. Zedler, like so many of their colleagues at the Capitol, apparently prefer to legislate by anecdote. But we can point to some real facts on sex education: 

A 2012 study found no evidence that formal sex education leads teens to initiate sexual activity earlier or to engage in greater risk taking. 

A November 2007 report explained that “two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavioral effects.” Many either delayed or reduced sexual activity, reduced the number of sexual partners, or increased condom or contraceptive use. None of the comprehensive programs hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of sex. Access to effective contraception dramatically reduces unplanned pregnancy and abortion.

Here is the audio tape for those who cannot believe that this level of ignorance exists:

You know I have been to women's clinics a few items in my live, including Planned Parenthood, and I cannot remember ANYTHING in the educational materials which got my engine revving.

And this includes when I was sixteen years old, and I got an erection if a female simply bit her lip. arched her back, or flicked her hair out of her face.

This is just more of these ridiculous attacks against Planned Parenthood which the GOP now sees as the root of all evil. You know that and Obamacare.

Bristol Palin accidentally celebrates sex education and better access to contraceptives.

So just today Bristol Nancy French posted the above picture of Trig and Tripp, attached to the post below:

When I got pregnant, I was only 17 and pretty scared. In other words, I feel compassion for people who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies and who are dealing with issues they’ve never had to consider. 

I wrote about the moment I realized I was pregnant in my book “Not Afraid of Life:” 

Baby. Just the thought of it was so staggering. I wasn’t afraid of taking care of one, because I’d taken care of Willow, Piper, and my cousins for years. The scary part was being a teen mom. Being alone. Being a disappointment to my family. 

Of course, you know the rest of the story. I know I did the right thing in having Tripp, and it looks like many other people are deciding to have their babies too! 

On Wednesday, the CDC announced that abortion rates have decline 5%. What a wonderful development – it was a great thing to find out during Thanksgiving Week!

Okay so Nancy/Bristol sort of insinuates that the reason for the lower abortion rate is that young woman, who have found themselves with an unexpected pregnancy, are choosing to have their babies rather than terminate their pregnancies.  Which is what Bristol claims were the circumstances surrounding HER pregnancy with Tripp.(Though that is factually inaccurate since SHE had actually been trying to get pregnant as revealed first by Mercede Johnston and later by Levi in HIS book "Deer in the Headlights.")

However the study she cites by the CDC says the following: 

Unintended pregnancy is the major contributor to abortion. Because unintended pregnancies are rare among women who use the most effective methods of reversible contraception, increasing access to and use of these methods can help further reduce the number of abortions performed in the United States. The data in this report can help program planners and policy makers identify groups of women at greatest risk for unintended pregnancy and help guide and evaluate prevention efforts.

In other words the CDC identifies the cause for the reduction in the number of abortions to better education and access to birth control, NOT to simply choosing to have the babies as  suggested by Nancy/Bristol's blog post. And that is indeed backed up with data concerning the number of births in the United States as well which are down for the fourth year in a row.

Though I am sure that Nancy/Bristol would love to take credit for the reduction of abortions in this country, it would appear that the numbers changed despite the fact that Bristol became a pseudo celebrity by glorifying teen pregnancy, and promoting the abstinence only approach to teen pregnancy, which has proved to be especially ineffective at reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies.

However let me just add that I am ALSO very pleased that the number of abortions is down in this country, as well as the birthrate, and hope that trend continues DESPITE the efforts of snotty little "celebutards" to provide harmful and negative examples to the youth of America.

Stephen Colbert's take on abstinence only education.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

That was brilliant.

Abstinence only education doesn't work. Yet another scientific study reinforces what should be obvious to most thinking Americans.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

The number of teen births in the U.S. dropped again in 2010, according to a government report, with nearly every state seeing a decrease. Nationally, the rate fell 9 percent to about 34 per 1,000 girls ages 15 through 19, and the drop was seen among all racial and ethnic groups. Mississippi continues to have the highest teen birth rate, with 55 births per 1,000 girls. New Hampshire has the lowest rate at just under 16 births per 1,000 girls. 

This is the lowest national rate for teen births since the Centers for Disease Control began tracking it in 1940, and CDC officials attributed the decline to pregnancy prevention efforts. Other reports show that teenagers are having less sex and using contraception more often. Studies have backed this up. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle found that teenagers who received some type of comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to get pregnant or get someone else pregnant. And in 2007, a federal report showed that abstinence-only programs had “no impacts on rates of sexual abstinence.” 

But 37 states require sex education that includes abstinence, 26 of which require that abstinence be stressed as the best method. Additionally, research shows that abstinence-only strategies could deter contraceptive use among teenagers, thus increasing their risk of unintended pregnancy. 

For example, take the states with the highest and lowest teen pregnancy rates. Mississippi does not require sex education in schools, but when it is taught, abstinence-only education is the state standard. New Mexico, which has the second highest teen birth rate, does not require sex ed and has no requirements on what should be included when it is taught. New Hampshire, on the other hand, requires comprehensive sex education in schools that includes abstinence and information about condoms and contraception. 

Personally I think these scientists could have saved a lot of time just by taking a road trip to Wasilla, stepping out of their cars to look around, and then realizing "Oh yeah, this is not working at all!"

Same thing could have been achieved just by visiting the Palin compound also don'tcha know?

Teenagers have been having premarital sex for as long as their have been teenagers in the world.

Hell I myself am the product of a teen pregnancy. This is certainly nothing new in the world.

But like the study indicates, helping young hormonal teenagers do what they are going to do anyhow only safely, will ensure that we have far fewer cases of kids having kids. And ultimately THAT should be the goal of every parent and educator in this country.

Or is that too logical?

Who says America isn't number one?

Yay, for us?

E-mail that shows ADN's Lisa Demer was trying her best to get to the bottom of the Trig Palin birth story. Update!

Mercede Johnston and Bristol Palin from April 2008.

This e-mail string was started by an e-mail to Sharon Leighow from School Superintendent Carol Comeau (My old boss), in response to queries by Lisa Demer: From:

Comeau_Carol To: Leighow, Sharon W (GOV) 
Sent: Fri Dec 19 16:11:04 2008 
Subject: Lisa Demer contact 

Hi Sharon, 
I just tried to call you to give you an update on another contact from Lisa Demer. She wanted to know the exact date that Bristol lelt West. I refused to give that to her based on the Family Rights Act, FERPA, that governs student records. I told her our attorney advised me not to give her any more information than I did before (I told her that Bristol enrolled January 7, 2008 and withdrew May 7, 2008. She was frustrated but I told her I could not give any more information to her without parental consent. I don’t know if she will try and get the info another way, but I did want you and the governor to know. Carol

The first notable thing about this e-mail is that I do believe it is the first OFFICIAL timeline given for when Bristol enrolled at West High and when she was withdrawn from school. (From everything I have been able to gather, the last sighting of Bristol in that school was sometime in February of 2008. NOBODY has come forward to say they saw her at any time after that.)

Now I personally ran into the stone wall of FERPA as well. I had a teacher friend who herself had a friend that taught Bristol at West High. One day I asked if it would be possible that I talk to this teacher, even off the record, about when Bristol last attended.

My teacher friend was also convinced that something was screwy about the Governor's pregnancy, but she said there was no way to make that request because teachers were not allowed to give out that kind of information about students. As a school district employee myself I had to respect that, and did not press the issue further.

Now of course the Palins, and their supporters, would say that asking this kind of question was ridiculous, and that there was nothing revelatory about when Bristol did, or did not, attend classes in Anchorage.

But if THAT were true how do we explain this e-mailed response?

From: Palin, Sarah (GOV sponsored)
Sent:  Friday, December 19, 2008 6:01 PM
To: Leighow, Sharon W (GOV) <sharon.leighow@alaska.gov>; McAllister, William D
(GOV) <bill.mcallister@alaska.gov>; Perry, Kristina Y (GOV)
<kris.perry@alaska.gov>; Nizich, Michael A (GOV) <mike.nizich@alaska.gov>
Subject:   Re: Lisa Demer contact

What the heck are they trying to get at here?/REDACTED (About two sentences removed here) lREDACTED And lisa doesn,t need to know any of this, of course, but I think we have the right to know what the heck she’s trying to piece together on her fishing expedition.

Now WHAT exactly could be revealed in this e-mail, which clearly states that Palin has no idea what Demer is "trying to piece together on her fishing expedition," that requires a redaction? 

Is it state business? 

Secret sensitive material that is for government eyes only? 

I don't see how that could be. 

And wouldn't leaving it intact help put to rest the "conspiracy theory" that Bristol might have been missing classes because she was visibly pregnant, or had just given birth at that time? Unless the redacted portion gave some clues to what was really going on that Palin did not want to fall into the hands of journalists (and of course bloggers), as indicated by the remark "Lisa doesn't need to know any of this of course."

So what in the hell is so damn secret about a teenage girls high school attendance, that compels the state of Alaska to redact any mention of it?

Update: It looks like Demer was coming at this from all angles.