Once last word on Rep. Todd Akin

There has been enough press coverage on the Missouri Representative’s Dark Ages ideas on rape that I don’t need to reprise the issue again here on Blogging Blue.

But rather than this plank from the 2012 Republican Party Platform:

The Republican campaign platform denounces contraceptive education in schools. Instead, it advises kids to abstain from sex until marriage.

shouldn’t this incident cause the Republican Party to be screaming for comprehensive, biologically accurate sex education? I mean really?

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3 thoughts on “Once last word on Rep. Todd Akin

  1. regardless what the GOP says….the conservative members hold the opinion a woman would not be raped if she did not put herself in the situation….therefore factual knowledge about biology would not change this pervailing belief.

  2. The kicker is comprehensive sex education does include abstinence. Abstinence-only isn’t education. It’s wishful thinking, and it regards abstinence as a form of birth control only until the time of marriage. So, after marriage couples need never think on birth control ever again.

    Todd Akin’s home state of Missouri’s abstinence-only program is remarkably successful at increasing the rates of teenage pregnancy and STDs.

    Of all the cities in the U.S., Missouri’s St. Louis ranks highest in sexual transmission of gonorrhea and chlamydia.

    Chlamydia infection, legitimate chlamydia that is, affects more women than men in Missouri and exceeds the national average.

    On the other hand, white males in Todd Akin’s Missouri have higher chlamydia rates than the national average and white male chlamydia rates in Missouri exceed the national rate of African American males.

    The pregnancy rate of white teens in Missouri is twice that of black teens, and over ten times that of Hispanic teens.

    Missouri women exceed the national rate for poor mental health, but then again so do Missouri men.

    Meanwhile, outside of Missouri, study after study confirms that abstinence-only has exactly zero effectiveness in raising abstinence rates, and newer studies are showing that abstinence-only programs deter contraceptive use among teenagers. What a powerful combination. Unfortunately, this is science, data, and empiricism at work, and the GOP platform confirms that reality has zero impact on the party of wishful thinking.

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