Say Anything Blog

USA TODAY:

The federal government’s “no sex without marriage” message isn’t just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

Great. Using tax money to promote abstinence in adults! What next? Taking taxpayers money in a study to see if America’s Religious Leaders have a brain?

But Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the revision is aimed at 19- to 29-year olds because more unmarried women in that age group are having children.

Government data released last month show that 998,262 births in 2004 were to unmarried women 19-29, the ages with the most births to unmarried women.

“The message is ‘It’s better to wait until you’re married to bear or father children,’ “ Horn said. “The only 100% effective way of getting there is abstinence.”

Hey, the only 100% effective way of not getting pregnant is abstinence! You would think that would be known by our children in schools because we have the best schools in the world now thanks to No Child Left Behind. Wow, you do learn something new every day. HAHA!

Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says abstinence programs are among many messages that have helped reduce teen pregnancy rates. But “the notion that the federal government is supporting millions of dollars worth of messages to people who are grown adults about how to conduct their sex life is a very divisive policy,” she says.

Sarah has it right. Why are we targeting people who are grown adults? I have three guesses and the first two don’t count. It’s to appease the right-wing conservatives that want to legislate morality. Why do we need to let those people and their morality standards be the guiding light of the American Morals System? Where is that conservative bedrock of smaller government and keeping government out of the bedroom? All this comes out to be is a waste of taxpayers money. There is no other way to look at it. Once you meet the age of majority, the government should leave you alone. Stop telling us Americans what to do. We need to make our own choices, and according to the Constitution, We the people control the government not the other way around.