Reproductive News

[Originally posted on goofyblog 12.07.06]

Even though Democrats won control of Congress, the Bush Administration is extremely active in many areas, not the least of which is the Christian extremist bugaboo, sex and reproductive rights.

These whack jobs are in a distinct minority, but they still have the power and the influence and it’s like when will it end? The following has happened in just the past few weeks:

• Last month, Eric Keroack was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs–the person responsible for dispensing hundreds of millions of dollars designed to ensure access to contraceptives and family planning information, especially for low-income women.But what background does he have for this position? His stated beliefs that condoms offer virtually no protection against STDs and Herpes, abstinence should be the only choice before marriage, pre-marital sex alters brain chemistry thus creating a physiological barrier to a happy marriage? More here.“Talk to any non-ideologically driven teen sex educator in the trenches, and they will tell you abstinence-only doesn’t work. Better yet, look at real research that was actually funded by our own government. The study was a $45 million project, funded by 17 separate federal agencies. Investigators interviewed more than 20,000 young people about virginity pledge programs [and] found that pledging will help teens delay sex for about 18 months [but] when they do have sex, pledgers are one-third less likely to use condoms.” Another study found the decline in teenage pregnancy in the US between ’95 and ’05 was due to improved contraception, not abstinence.
  
• Also last month, rules permitting sex-segregated classes are now codified into our laws so now girls can be taught to take care of babies while boys can be taught to hunt “because of biological differences in the brain.” Forget that US schooling is 21^st in math, 23^rd in problem solving in relation to other developed nations. Forget the idea of gender equality and non-segregation. More here.
  
• The Office on Violence Against Women has a new Acting Director, Mary Beth Buchanan, a pro-Patriot Act, anti-porn crusader having no qualifications for (or interest in) a position responsible for helping survivors of intimate partner violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. She was the prosecutor of Tommy Chong, who was convicted of selling bongs. More here.
  
• Meanwhile, Bush is spending millions on abstinence-only programs for adults now. That’s right: $50 million will be spent to warn a 28 year old about the perils of having sex before marrying. More here.
  
• Then there’s the fetal pain bill. The do-nothing Congress can’t pass any of the spending bills still on the table, but they have time to convene on this stupid, invasive, unnecessary intrusion of women’s bodies. More here.

Is it a national disease this anti-sexual bias in the government?

As Mark Morford points out in his hilarious article in the Chronicle last month:

“It is enough to make you wonder: Will there ever be, in our lifetime, a president, a Senate subcommittee, a government program that will dare emerge with a sex-positive, unashamed, salacious and delicious new guideline suggesting that we should all get naked as much as possible so long as we work to understand our bodies and enjoy ourselves responsibly and lovingly and respectfully and orgasmically because it shall make the country and the planet a better place?

“In other words, will there ever be a time when we can honestly look to the United States government for valid and reasonable and healthy and truly informative, positive information about human sexuality, information that does not embarrass us and humiliate us and insult our libidos the same way Dick Cheney insults sunlight? Do you already know the answer?”

Finally, in other reproductive news, the Vatican may be softening its stance on condom use and scientists in the UK have discovered a treatment which will stop men from ejaculating sperm, a truly male-based form of contraception. More here.

We live in an atmosphere of increasing repression of our sexual rights. It’s just another form of assault on our privacy and our freedoms. Where do all these people come from and how is it they have the influence they do? The morning after pill, anti-ejaculation treatments, Viagra/Levitra, Britney Spear’s clubbing wardrobe, all the expressions of sexuality in film and tv and yet there is still this enormous, onerous repressive group that keeps coming, never stopping.