One Utah

The news that Bristol Palin, age 17, is five months pregnant has, to say the least, focused attention on questions of sexuality education (her mother, Republican VP candidate, current Governor of Alaska, is on record supporting abstinence-only), and reproductive freedom (the Governer opposes abortion except in the exceedingly rare circumstances it is necessary to save [...]

Last week, Cameron at Magic Valley Mormon published a post about Safe Sex last week. The core of his argument can be summed up: Condoms don’t make sex 100% safe, therefore sex is never safe and we shouldn’t ever tell anyone it is or can be. Hence he wrote:
We as parents, educators, and [...]

So, the back story goes something like this: Old, white haired Catholic guy in Great Britain issues stupid statement attributing a host of things to demonic possession - which he deems contagious.
Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Fr. Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to [...]

There are some problems with the polling questions as Jesse points out but it shows Americans are pro-choice:
I’m not a particular fan of the “legal under any circumstances” versus “legal only under certain circumstances” distinction, if only because I think most people can think up at least one circumstance where someone shouldn’t be allowed to [...]

Over at Denialism, PalMD, an internist, writes:
When a pharmacist receives a prescription from a physician that they believe may pose a threat to a patient, they call the doctor. For example, if I were to write a prescription for levothyroxine 125mg daily, the pharmacist would call me up to see if I meant micrograms rather [...]

The anti-abortion crowd has been, for a very long time, very quietly anti-contraception. Arguments against contraception range from the ludicrous (use of contraception leads to abortion) to the medically inaccurate (chemical contraception is actually a form of chemical abortion). Since 98% of American women will use contraception during their lives, arguing against it [...]

I’m having an extremely difficult time posting today. I just can’t seem to think clearly. I don’t know what’s up with that.
I’m avoiding the gym tonight. I know it’s lame excuse but it’s always so crowded on Mondays it’s almost not worth going. I know it’s a lame excuse.
Anyway, [...]

Via Feministing, I see a great article  by Sara Robinson about the changing dynamics of abortion. 
The gist of the article concerns the way in which medical termination of unwanted pregnancies (i.e. RU-486) is changing the way in which women receive and experience abortions, and is changing the locus of control over reproductive freedom - namely moving [...]

Over the weekend, I read Andrea Tone’s Devices & Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America.  Tone tracks the history of American use and attitudes toward contraception - and records a striking and historic gap between the two.  To sum up the history: the loudest voices in America seem to have always been opposed to the [...]

My post from Saturday about Kathleen Parker’s sad cry for more virginity at college, got me thinking about connections.
Recently, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy released report detailing their findings with regard to the efficacy of sexuality education programs. The report, Emerging Answers, found that abstinence only programs have no demonstrated effectiveness and [...]

The Trib today published another hacktackular op-ed piece by another member of the conservative stable of writers who are just offended at the gone to hellness of our world. Kathleen Parker is offering yet another dreary denouncement of what hideous sluts kids are today.
What happened to your dearly beloved? He - and she [...]

As someone who teaches comprehensive sexuality education, I particularly enjoyed Jane Jimenez’s recent delusional stream of consciousness everything has gone to hell op-ed.
Jimenez (who for reasons that are obvious only to wingnuts) has a national platform from which to speak, blathers that
Abstinence education shines a light on the problems inherent in promoting sex as entertainment without [...]