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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

Oh, Goodie.

Opinion, The C is for Crank   January 26, 2010 at 1:09 pm Erica C. Barnett

Thanks to the election of Scott Brown, the Senate version of health-care reform will almost certainly include $50 million for abstinence-only education!

Teen pregnancy rates—on the decline since 1990—are back on the rise. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the increase can be directly linked to the Bush-era focus on abstinence-only education.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-01-26-1Ateenpregnancy26_ST_N.htm


  • Haven

    As stupid as I believe an abstinence-only education to be – by the time the curriculum has sex ed taught in class it is usually too late anyway. Schools still teach sex ed to high schoolers when really they should be teaching it to Jr High/Middle Schoolers (and I do mean sex-ed, not the watered down “Health” they currently teach to that age)

    Parents/Guardians need to step up and not rely on the schools anyway.

  • Haven

    As stupid as I believe an abstinence-only education to be – by the time the curriculum has sex ed taught in class it is usually too late anyway. Schools still teach sex ed to high schoolers when really they should be teaching it to Jr High/Middle Schoolers (and I do mean sex-ed, not the watered down “Health” they currently teach to that age)

    Parents/Guardians need to step up and not rely on the schools anyway.

  • Roger

    “Directly” or “Suggests”?

  • Roger

    “Directly” or “Suggests”?

  • 60 votes

    and this is what the 60 vote rule means in practice.

    Has Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, or NARAL supported that Harkin bill to end the 60 vote rule, or is everyone just interested in bemoaning our fate when you need senatorial votes from vast, rural, conservative and empty places like Nebraska and North Dakota ?

  • 60 votes

    and this is what the 60 vote rule means in practice.

    Has Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, or NARAL supported that Harkin bill to end the 60 vote rule, or is everyone just interested in bemoaning our fate when you need senatorial votes from vast, rural, conservative and empty places like Nebraska and North Dakota ?

  • Roger

    60 Votes – you don’t think that could ever come back to work against you? Or, just change it again when it does (sort of like Mass did for the “seat”)?

  • Roger

    60 Votes – you don’t think that could ever come back to work against you? Or, just change it again when it does (sort of like Mass did for the “seat”)?

  • Alex Broner

    1. Roger: Of course making 50 votes the requirement for passing legislation can “come back to work against you”. Any higher threshold for votes inherently favors the status quo. The question is whether we believe that maintaining the status quo is ON BALANCE preferable to majority rule.

    2. I do not want to be seen as speaking favorably about abstinence education but I think a one year change from 6.95% teen pregnancy to 7.15% constitutes proof of anything. That is after all a .2% increase. We don’t know yet whether this is part of a trend or just a statistical hiccup. I’d be interested in reading a followup based on next years numbers.

  • Alex Broner

    1. Roger: Of course making 50 votes the requirement for passing legislation can “come back to work against you”. Any higher threshold for votes inherently favors the status quo. The question is whether we believe that maintaining the status quo is ON BALANCE preferable to majority rule.

    2. I do not want to be seen as speaking favorably about abstinence education but I think a one year change from 6.95% teen pregnancy to 7.15% constitutes proof of anything. That is after all a .2% increase. We don’t know yet whether this is part of a trend or just a statistical hiccup. I’d be interested in reading a followup based on next years numbers.

  • InsideAGO

    I can buy a direct link in the bump in teenage pregnancies to the Bush administration, but anecdotally the teenagers with child in Hollywood can’t have helped either. Is feminism dead? I’m just sayin’ . . .

  • InsideAGO

    I can buy a direct link in the bump in teenage pregnancies to the Bush administration, but anecdotally the teenagers with child in Hollywood can’t have helped either. Is feminism dead? I’m just sayin’ . . .