MPS and Condoms

They did it and there really was little doubt. When one "director" declared something like "I can't let one child die of AIDS, I support condoms" before the public had a chance to speak, an hour and 45 minutes was filled with meaningless chitchat. The 5-0 vote totally expected.

Has anyone out there not heard the assertion "abstinence education doesn't work"? If so, call home, your Mom wants to know you're alive! That is one of the biggest lies that was repeated often enough to become "truth". The blogs today are filled with the next biggest lie--that Milwaukee schools and the entire state taught abstinence-only education and now look at the mess we're in.

Fact is comprehensive sex education has been the law in this state for 25 years. There was a little blip in 2005 when the legislature timidly added that abstinence from sexual behavior was the preferred behavior for public school students because it was the most effective way to avoid pregnancy and disease. That is, at best, an objective and the reason for it. That is not abstinence education. But that little blip will be erased by the Healthy Youth Act along with measures to ensure a quick demise of abstinence agencies and the ability of anyone to question the veracity or intent of sex information taught in schools.

The State Health Plan, Healthy Wisconsin 2010, set goals of 30% sexually active students in WI and STI infection rates that seemed reachable by 2010. But reality is far different! Wake up Wisconsin! You had an education policy and a health plan that have been total failures.

There is so much research that condoms are little more than a last resort for the sexually active--limited effectiveness, user errors, and inconsistent use are readily apparent in lots of studies. Only teen sexual activity and its outcomes are considerations--both keep increasing. The latter will never decrease unless the former does.