Birth control to prevent pregnancies and "safe' sex education to decrease the alarming number of STD cases in the U.S.,particulary in young people. Unplanned pregnancies and STD are the issues that can force a reality check on the self- righteous, unrealistic, anti-abortion, abstinence only sex ed. proponents.

From the American Social Health Association: http://www.ashastd.org/stdfaqs/statistics.html

STD STATISTICS:
Estimating how many STD cases occur is not a simple or straightforward task. First, most STDs can be "silent," causing no noticeable symptoms. These asymptomatic infections can be diagnosed only through testing. Unfortunately, routine screening programs are not widespread, and social stigma and lack of public awareness concerning STDs often inhibits frank discussion between health care providers and patients about STD risk and the need for testing.--ASHA.Sexually Transmitted Diseases in America: How Many Cases and at What Cost? December 1998

The estimated total number of people living in the US with an incurable STD is over 65 million. Every year, there are approximately 15 million new cases of STDs, a few of which are curable.

Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people 25 years of age or younger.

One in four new STD infections occur in teenagers.

Cervical cancer in women is linked to high-risk types of HPV

Of the STDs that are diagnosed, only four--gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia and hepatitis B--are required to be reported to state health departments and the CDC for statistical purposes. Hepatitis B is recent addition to that list.

Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV

STDs, other than HIV, cost more than $8 billion each year to diagnose and treat, both the disease and their complications.

It is estimated that as many as one in four Americans have genital herpes, yet at least 80 percent of those with herpes are unaware they have it

At least one in four Americans will contract an STD at some point in their lives.

Overall, herpes is the most common STD in the United States, with more than 45 million individuals having this lifelong (but harmless) virus. In a given year, however, it is estimated that more people will become infected with HPV than with herpes. More than 1 million people acquire herpes each year and over 5 million people acquire HPV each year. Some researchers believe that HPV infections may self-resolve and may not be lifelong like herpes.

Less than half of adults ages 18 to 44 have ever been tested for an STD other than HIV / AIDS.

At least 15 percent of all infertile American women are infertile because of tubal damage caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), the result of an untreated STD.

Approximately two-thirds of Hepatitis B (HBV) infections are transmitted sexually, HBV is linked to chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.

ASHA is a trusted partner with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and operates the national AIDS, STD, Immunization and Public Response Hotline

and yet many of those on the right are going on about how artificial contraception is immoral as they consider hormonal contraception may hinder implantion of a blastocyst when ovulation does occur AND the egg is fertlized. Allowing contraception is disordered thinking since an ova that may possibly be fertilized does have more value than a woman even when her life is in danger. The guy on this blog says he's not pushing to outlaw contraception but:

morality of contraception

The Catholic Church position is what is outlined, here. That will never change. But, I bet that the majority of American Catholics have used or are using some form of contraception to limit the size of their families.
You know what's amazing about sex ed. in public schools? Students have the right to opt out of those courses if they so desire, at least in my son's school. I imagine that's true for every school district in the U.S. So, what's the problem for the abstinence only people? Their kids can opt out of a full sex ed. program and read abstinence only literature as others are learning how to protect themselves from STD and unwanted prenancies, IF they do have sex before marriage, which is likely.

My problem is the fundies are also using this position and there's no latitude for contraception to save a woman's life because they consider hormonal contraception abortion (even in the case of GDT) and they do want to abolish access to contraception. Do you really think the women who are now against abortion b/c they're going through fertility treatment & IVF desperate to have a baby, would stand by the "pro-lifers" if they knew that the pro-lifers consider them murderers & wanted to outlaw IVF as well?

I thought the opt out policy is for the parents to refuse consent for their child to take sex ed (not for the child to opt out on their own). My best friend's aprents didn't let her take sex ed &, as SOuthern Baptists, there was NO discussion of sex at home aside from "it's immoral outside marriage, you don't need to know about it until you're married" She lost her virginity without knowing she'd "gone all the way" (she's also the one who's 3 children were all the result of contraceptive failure)

Well yes, it is for parents to sign an opt out for sex ed. By the time their kids are teenagers, I imagine it would be hard for them to deny their teenager the right to take a full sex ed. course, if they wanted to take the class. BUT that's the point! It's for the parent to work that out with their child. Also, on the other side of the coin, if my son's school had an abstinence only course, we would supplement his sex ed. with info we feel is vital for his well being.

I am a Catholic and trying to reconnect with the Church, but these kinds of hypocricies are too much. Do you see the logic in this position?



People are infertile because of sin?! Condoms are wrong?!

I think what the writer in the New Republic was pointing out is that not many people are against contraception. Therefore, forcing the anti-abortion forces into an argument about preventing abortions through birth control would tilt the argument in our favor.

The plan to beatify a woman who chose not to terminate a pregnancy that was discovered the same time as her cancer was. I think she was in the first month of pregnancy, the cancer was considered treatable w/chemo (that would have ended the pregnancy). The baby was born at 6 months, she died 3 months later. Having spent the past two days looking at data from pre-term babies (not all as early as hers) and seeing not only how bad the mortality rate is, but how sickly they are in the months they live and how few survive without some pretty significant problems I still don't understand how if they think all life is sacred how anyone could so easily condemn women to a most definite death just to ensure live birth (with a high mortality rate).

Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great,

If a sperm is wasted God gets so irate!

Let the heathen spill theirs on the dusty ground,

God will make them PAY for each sperm that can't be found!

- Monty Python
- The Meaning of Life