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Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 13:45:18 PM CDT
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| Yesterday's Omaha World-Herald included a cheap attack on a sexual education website for teenagers run by Planned Parenthood. Probably the worst thing about the front-page article - other than the complete idiocy, opportunism, and childishness of Nebraska's Republican Congressmen - is that the World-Herald never even gave the name of the website or published its internet address so readers could judge it for themselves.
Instead, the World-Herald reported:
A Web site offering detailed sex information to teenagers has some Midlands lawmakers turning red. "It's enough to make an old person blush," said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. "If that was in a printed magazine, it would be wrapped (in brown paper) and put behind a counter, and no teens would be allowed to buy it."
Planned Parenthood Federation of America started the site years ago as a way of providing medically accurate answers to the questions adolescents have about their changing bodies and sexual activity....But some members of Congress now say the site goes too far, both in the graphic detail it provides and the messages it sends on topics such as premarital sex and abortion.
"It's borderline pornographic," said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. "It's far too descriptive, and it's unnecessary"....King said what Planned Parenthood bills as "safer sex" on the Web site, he calls "promiscuity"....
Discussion about the site comes in the midst of a larger debate on Capitol Hill about how, what and when young people should learn about sex. A hot button in that debate is the hundreds of millions of dollars the federal government has been spending in recent years for programs that promote abstinence....
Opponents of abstinence-based programs point to studies that say such programs tend to include inaccurate information and aren't all that effective....Terry has been a chief proponent of federal funding for abstinence programs, pushing to increase the amount of money going to them.....
In Douglas County, STD rates for teens and adults are significantly above the national level.
Represenatives Adrian Smith and Jeff Fortenberry then join in Terry and King's nonsense, declaring this still unnamed site "wholly inappropriate" and questioning the motives of Planned Parenthood in providing it.
The site in question is TeenWire.com. It's a shame the World-Herald would allow the site to be insulted like this without even giving it a name and listing its address. But, then those few young people who read the World-Herald might actually be able to get some real information about safe and responsible sexual health. Of course, we wouldn't want that. |
| Kyle Michaelis :: Embracing Ignorance: GOP Congressmen Are Killing Nebraska's Children |
| The World-Herald would also be encouraging people to use the internet - something else they're clearly afraid of, if we're to judge based on the ongoing embarrassment they call Omaha.com.
In its article, the World-Herald did include the name of the scandalous-sounding feature called Farmer Tina's Sexually Transmitted Infection Petting Zoo, but - watching the video - I'd love to know what anyone could actually find objectionable about it. The same goes for the very reasonable and balanced article addressing every teens' question of "Am I Ready?" to be sexually active.
The facts - and the website - speak for themselves. Rather than listening to those, the World-Herald listened to four jackass Republican Congressmen who are desperate for some good press and resorting to cheap shots at an easy target.
As for Terry, Fortenberry, and Smith - and their even more contemptible counterpart from Iowa - their attack on this website and their continued support for this failed experiment in abstinence-only education are simply unforgivable.
They are pandering to the far right-wing, embracing ignorance that is killing Nebraska teenagers. There is no justice for a crime and a sin so ugly and reprehensible - at least, not in this lifetime. |
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