What activity do most Americans participate in that scares our government into spending hundreds of millions of our tax dollars, and yet is enjoyed daily by citizens across the nation? The little word that is free but is costing us millions: sex.
The Bush administration wants a 33 percent increase of $133 million in the 2003 budget for abstinence-only education, defined federally as, \teaching the social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity."" Between 1997 and 2002, approximately $500 million will have been spent on our government's ignorant decisions concerning sexuality.
Our government is ignoring a fundamental need of humans and in the process victimizing our nation. Politicians are making the assumption that Americans will abstain from all sexual activity if not provided sexual health education. They are doing this without thoroughly researching the effects of abstinence only education, and certainly not proving abstinence only education as effective. Must our government be reminded that the ""just say no"" drug campaign didn't exactly halt the drug war?
The United States has the highest pregnancy and abortion rates in the West, one in four sexually active teens, (3 to 4 million) will become infected with a sexually transmitted infection this year. This alone beckons for a shift in the way we perceive sex in our society, denial will only spawn backlash. As a nation we must move sex out basements and back seats and into classrooms and dinner conversations.
A survey performed by Teen Wire revealed most teens get their information about sex from the media. We are letting Britney Spears play the sex-ed substitute teacher while our government pretends teens don't have sex. Is the Bush administration now going to request millions of dollars to buy everyone on television, on a billboard, in a movie or magazine a turtleneck? The government cannot deny sex is a substantial part of our daily lives.
Abstinence-only education is not what the people want. According to Planned Parenthood, seven out of 10 Americans oppose abstinence only education. Eighty-five percent of voters believe students need ""age-appropriate information"" on contraception and STI prevention, two thirds of parents believe sex education will delay sexually activity, and nine of 10 public school teachers believe we must inform students about contraception. In spite of the above, our government continues to impose an archaic sexual ideology making half billion-dollar decisions that are out of sync with American's beliefs.
Our government is foolish in presuming that our nation will remain celibate when 90 percent of our population is engaging in intercourse before marriage. Expecting to convince 90 percent of our nation to ignore their sexuality until they are bound in wedlock by strategically eliminating sex-ed in public schools is absurd.
We as a generation and as a community have already had our health compromised by the lack of effective sexual health education. There is not precise documentation of STI rates for UW-Madison students, seeing that students receive medical attention from various health facilities. However, University Health Services diagnoses approximately 300 STIs per school year. In 2001, UHS diagnosed 121 cases of genital warts and 84 cases of chlamydia. Many students are not aware that they have been infected by a STI, making infection rates much higher than recorded. Sexual health education was poor when we were teens, but now sex education is becoming nonexistent.
Sex is not a problem. Sex can be our friend or our foe; we can continue to fight sex, or we can invite sex in for a cup of tea and a game of Scrabble. Let's read our children nursery rhymes about condoms and teach our children lullabies about exploring their bodies. Please President Bush, let us some make love and not so much war.
