It has been a long-kept tradition in Texas to not teach our children much about sex. We tell them the basic mechanics of it, that it produces children, that there's a variety of STDs you can catch if you're not careful, and that the only way to avoid all of this mess is by abstaining until marriage. While the idea of staying celibate before getting married may be nice for some people, it's certainly not what everyone does. As Chloe Yates points out in her recent post "Re-Education," this policy of abstinence-only education has failed Texas, but our elected representatives and the GOP have refused to let it go.
Yates brings up some good points in this respect. She provides a link to a study showing that abstinence-only education does not decrease the likelihood of teenagers having sex or using condoms if they do have sex. She points out that Texas has the third highest teen birth rate in the country. This is a very serious issue in our state, and the GOP is still supporting a policy which has been proven to do nothing to fix it. She also points out that this policy is completely based in our politicians' religious ties and has nothing to do with trying to lower the teen birth rate. As she states, this is an unethical policy. Religious doctrine should not determine public policy. Period.
In my opinion, this is a perfectly sound dismissal of the GOP's abstinence-only policy. It shows that it doesn't work, shows that there is a very big issue which this policy is letting become even worse, and shows that the policy is entirely based in religious conviction. Therefore, we conclude that our politicians are doing the wrong thing and should reverse their policy immediately. I agree with Yates. We should fight the GOP's policy for the betterment of our state.
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