Kate Walsh: Abstinence-Only "Not Working"
Actress Kate Walsh is pushing for federal sex education programs to teach strategies beyond abstinence-only.
Walsh, who played a doctor on "Grey's Anatomy" and stars in its spin-off, "Private Practice," is a member of the board of advocates of Planned Parenthood, and went to Capitol Hill Thursday to take part in a congressional briefing on sex education.
She's been lobbying for sex ed to include birth control and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
Walsh says there's urgent need for a change in the way sex ed funds are appropriated: "In addition to abstinence, which is fine, there just needs to be a comprehensive sex education program, and we can't be relying on, you know, private foundations or parents or, you know, teens' peers to be educating each other. We really do need government help on this.
"It's a shame to me that we spend money on educating our kids on history, math, science, English literature, and we can't educate them sexually. And it's proof in these statistics. It's just shameful to me that, in our country, that these young women are being infected because they honestly just don't have the information.
"Abstinence is one aspect of sex education," Walsh continued, "but it is not the complete aspect. And to expect, I think, everybody to remain abstinent, it's like asking them not to grow. It's like we don't ask people to not try out for sports. We don't ask people to stop learning. It's just a natural human process, and we need to be educating people. If abstinence-only did work, we wouldn't be seeing these kinds of statistics. We wouldn't be seeing these young women suffering like this."
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. Walsh, who played a doctor on "Grey's Anatomy" and stars in its spin-off, "Private Practice," is a member of the board of advocates of Planned Parenthood, and went to Capitol Hill Thursday to take part in a congressional briefing on sex education.
She's been lobbying for sex ed to include birth control and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
On The Early Show Friday, Walsh told co-anchor Julie Chen, "Abstinence-only is not working. It's a $1.5 billion program over the last ten years that has, quite frankly, failed. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reported that one-in-four teenage girls (in the US) between the ages of 14 and 19 are infected with STIs (sexually transmitted infections), and that, to me, is appalling and shameful. And in the age of information, these women are just not getting adequate information."
Photos: Meet Kate Walsh
Walsh says there's urgent need for a change in the way sex ed funds are appropriated: "In addition to abstinence, which is fine, there just needs to be a comprehensive sex education program, and we can't be relying on, you know, private foundations or parents or, you know, teens' peers to be educating each other. We really do need government help on this.
"It's a shame to me that we spend money on educating our kids on history, math, science, English literature, and we can't educate them sexually. And it's proof in these statistics. It's just shameful to me that, in our country, that these young women are being infected because they honestly just don't have the information.
"Abstinence is one aspect of sex education," Walsh continued, "but it is not the complete aspect. And to expect, I think, everybody to remain abstinent, it's like asking them not to grow. It's like we don't ask people to not try out for sports. We don't ask people to stop learning. It's just a natural human process, and we need to be educating people. If abstinence-only did work, we wouldn't be seeing these kinds of statistics. We wouldn't be seeing these young women suffering like this."
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Sorry but I guess I dont see that as being a large number, they may be a minority to the rule, but by and large the religious reich is 100% against abortion at any stage because its in their teachings and book of death.
" By the way, do you have children of your own, and do they live with you.."
I dislike children totally, they are additional mouths for this already overpopulated planet to feed- another car on the road, another person in line and another house being built.
If I was female Id certainly have an abortion w/o question.
" or dont you know how many you have???. or are you yourself a homosexual and this is why you so ferverently argue in favour this way"
I dont have s3x with people, Im a zoophile exclusively and have been for over 35 years, so I know exactly how many children I have out there; ZERO
youtube.com/user/dersheeple
"I was taught at school that we were better than animals, that we had a more advanced brain, etc, has this changed???"
We are the SAME as animals, (mammals at least) we share some 94% or 96% of the same DNA
", do we no longer care about our young, does our own selfishness and desires come before the importance of bringing up happy, well, ajusted children???
Posted by Gaye5"
Gaye- we are OVERPOPULATED to the breaking point in a finite environment, we need to STOP breeding for ten years and let the numbers decline!
stop denegrating those who have different views. By the way, do you have children of your own, and do they live with you, or dont you know how many you have???. or are you yourself a homosexual and this is why you so ferverently argue in favour this way..
I was taught at school that we were better than animals, that we had a more advanced brain, etc, has this changed??? are we no longer any better than animals, do we no longer care about our young, does our own selfishness and desires come before the importance of bringing up happy, well, ajusted children???
There are reasons why we dont have many partners, and one of them is disease, another is that children who are brought up in a loving two blood parent family are more likely to succeed in life and have less problems.. generalizing of course.
Current understanding is that many species that were formerly believed monogamous have now been proven to be promiscuous or opportunistic in nature; a wide range of species appear both to masturbate and to use objects as tools to help them do so; in many species animals try to give and get sexual stimulation with others where procreation is not the aim; and homosexual behavior has now been observed among 1,500 species and in 500 of those it is well documented.
It might be a treasured value in many human cultures, but monogamy is rare in the animal kingdom at large.
Of the roughly 5,000 species of mammals, only 3 to 5 percent are known to form lifelong pair bonds. This select group includes beavers, otters, wolves, some bats and foxes and a few hoofed animals.
And even the creatures that do pair and mate for life occasionally have flings on the side and some, like the wolf, waste little time finding a new mate if their old one dies or can no longer sexually perform.
Staying faithful can be a struggle for most animals. For one, males are hardwired to spread their genes and females try to seek the best dad for their young.
Posted by hypnotoad72
Maybe, but there will always be those who simply do not like or want children, the anti abortion foes should step up to the plate, put their money where their mouths are, not breed, and adopt EVERY fetus themselves.
The religious reich needs to mind their own business and stop trying to mind everyone elses''
Loads of porn clips on the web show no protection is ever used, including one I saw with about a dozen men all ejack into a wine glass and a woman drinking it, obviously she was getting a nice HIV cocktail potential along with hepatitus and a whole assortment of stuff.
"Of course, one night stands are an insult against "
I disagree, if they both want it then who are WE to say otherwise?
"Why do people so conveniently divorce? "
Its too easy to GET married in the first place, marriage is all about control and taxation of property, assets, inheritances, minors, estates, real estate and oh yeah- the vitally important license fee the state charges!
"species of animals that DO live monogamous lives."
VERY, VERY few out of the whole which is estimated to be one million;
Most scientists agree, however, that there are about 1 million species of animals.
www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0934288.html
However;
Homosexual behaviour has been observed in 1500 animal species.
www.news-medical.net/?id=2071
I submit that the number of species who have been observed in homosexual acts (1500) is greater than the ''monogamous'' species- one of which I recall being a BIRD, and their brain is about the size of a pea.
They encourage teens to imagine ways to "eroticize condom use with (their) partner" and assign teens to create a list of ways to be close to a person without having intercourse, including, "body massage, bathing together, masturbation, sensuous feeding, fantasizing, watching erotic movies, reading erotic books and magazines etc, this would do it for even the most controlled person. Then couple this with TV shows of nothing else but ***, teen *** and violence and we have disaster..
The abstinence programs on the other hand have had incrediable success, perhaps this is why there are other reports that say abstinence among the youth has recently been credited with significantly contributing to a decline in teen births. A growing number of studies are also confirming that abstinence programs work.
But then the teaching of Abstinence is totally different to the teaching of abstinence-plus or abstinence-only.
40 to 100 million deaths