A provocative new study has found that teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don’t have sex.

Of course, the article has to go to the Family Research Council for a contrary view … and they provide it by saying:

The Council “would not interpret less severe educational impacts on students involved in `committed’ sexual relationships as a green light for comprehensive” sex education.

I wonder what WOULD the Council need before they agreed to give kids the life-saving information they’ll ALL need some day?  Just curious.

But here is the part that caught my eye:

Compared with virgins, teens who have casual sex had lower Grade Point Averages, cared less about school and experienced more problems in school. For example, female teens who have flings had GPAs that were 0.16 points lower than abstinent teens. Male teens who have casual sex had GPAs that were 0.30 points lower than those who do not have sex.

In other words, casual sex is TWICE as bad for boys as it is for girls.  Think the Family Research Council and other groups promoting abstinence-only-until-marriage will start focusing on judging teen boys for “having flings”?

Committed relationships can help teens in school

Sexuality is such a radicalized issue in USA and we don’t meaningfully talk about it in #sexed #sextech

This twitter post from the #sextech conference echos a presentation I did for Ignite Reno.  So, it has prompted me to finally post my slides!

And to implore you to talk dirty to your elected officials!

Photo by Kenton Maser

The number of maternal deaths that could have been prevented with better access to prenatal care or improved care has risen over time in America. In 1987, the rate was 6.6 deaths per 100,000 live births; in 2006, it had risen to 13.3 deaths per 100,000 live births.

How can numbers like that be possible?  True?

When my oldest son was born in 1987, I didn’t have health insurance.  So I pre-paid the hospital $999.00 (silly, eh?) for delivery at the birthing center at St. Mary’s.  When my daughter was born three years later – same story.  No insurance, $999 special.  In 1998, I think the bill for my youngest son was $1,500.  Now the average birth costs over $8000, I’m told.

What happened?  Pretty sure the process is the same.

Amnesty International is right to call for action!

Amnesty International has called on US President Barack Obama to tackle soaring rates of maternal mortality and pregnancy-related complications that particularly affect minorities and those living in poverty.

Amnesty International’s report Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, urges action to tackle a crisis that sees between two and three women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth in the USA.

So, I had to laugh when the site popped up with “My mom blabbed to everyone when I got my period.  So embarrassing.”

Yup – that was me.  Flowers and rings with red stones … so they’d feel positive about this milestone in their lives.  After all, the plumbing aspects of it aren’t much fun.

Hey – they’re supporting “girls for a change,” so I can’t feel too bad.

Kotex support Girls For A Change

Nice write up in Salon! Love the Reality Check video – no kidding.

Menstruation reality check

And for a different take:  Serena Williams vs. Mother Nature.  Hilarious.

Serena Williams vs Mother Nature

Photo by jessamyn.n uploaded to Flickr

A recent article asks:

Why are our young adults in the dark about birth control?

Several studies have been tracking this trend.  Twenty-somethings don’t want to get pregnant right now, but they aren’t really doing anything to prevent it either.  Not shocking, they’re figuring out who they are and what they want out of life.

What’s most astonishing is that they really don’t seem to understand sex, birth control and how much of it is actually under their control.  They seem to think it’s completely out of their hands — thank you abstinence only until marriage education with misinformation about the effectiveness of contraception.

But this IS the information age, no?  Super easy to get the real scoop on birth control effectiveness rates and disease prevention.  So why aren’t they?  I really don’t get it.

First, she isn’t the first to tweet about the actual issues invovled – Brazen Careerist tweeted about her miscarriage at work in October, and the backlash was just as horrific.  As one of my favorite bloggers points out, most comment sections are straight out of “Lord of the Flies.”  That’s especially true for women talking about their reproductive choices.

But here’s my take on it:  the twitterverse is one of those weird spaces that can feel like a conversation just between friends and/or an anonymous space where one can speak freely.

There are folks who just talk to their friends – and others who are more like random graffiti artists tagging away.  Because it isn’t face to face, it can be easier to maybe share more than you normally would.

I totally get how she was looking for support.  I’m not sure I believe she was “shocked” by the response, especially if her goal was normalizing abortion.  If you get that much, you must have some idea about the controversy.

It is weird to take a twitter conversation out of the twitterverse and apply the standards we’d use in regular conversations.

I like Newsweek’s analysis: the focus on keeping this inevitable procedure legal has come at the expense of conversations we should be having about the range of experiences women face.

The bottom line for me is that — the the range of experiences women face, the choices they make as the deal with the cards life has dealt them, and the myriad emotions they feel as they decide and later deal with the effects of their own decisions — the whole package is what it means to be truly human.

That’s as it should be.  You can pass all the laws you want — people will still make decisions: some great and some not so great.  It’s the deciding that makes us human, and the emotion we feel afterwards.

What I don’t get: women who have had abortions who “don’t believe in them.” I’ll explain Twitter if you explain that to me.

When it comes to online giving to charity, Alexandria, VA, Cambridge, MA and Minneapolis, MN topped the list as the nation’s most generous cities based on per capita giving in 2008.

In 2008, Reno ranked 129th with 6,251 donors giving $459,060.  The average contribution was just over $73.  (Las Vegas was 65th!)  For 2009, Reno is on track to come in ranked 94th.  Way to go Nevada!

An event celebrating donors

The City of Austin has apparently jumped from the bottom ten to the top ten, thanks to their “I live here, I give here” campaign.  Seems to me something similar is the logical next step for the “We love this place” campaign with the Community Foundation of Western Nevada.  Or maybe:  Truckee Meadows Tomorrow’s Accentuate the Positive and Give!

Give!

Keep up the great work!

I can not begin to imagine the politicians I grew up with, Senator Laxalt or Governor List or even President Reagan, coming unglued at the idea of the President making a national address directly to students on the importance of education.  Honestly.  Don’t you think Ronald Reagan, master of communication, would have addressed our students if he had had the technology available?

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune:

“Obama would not be the first president to address American students in a speech televised from a public school. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush urged students to demand more of themselves in their studies. His speech was shown on CNN and broadcast on the radio.

Democrats at the time attacked the speech as political advertising and a waste of taxpayer money.”

We are talking about the President of the United States, not Fidel Castro.

Here’s what I don’t get.  Republicans – we’re patriotic, right?  We’re dedicated to fighting terrorists and those who “hate freedom” and to helping spread Democracy around the world, right?  Democracy:  that’s got something to do with peaceful elections, majority rule and protecting the rights of the minority, doesn’t it?  Plus the first and second amendments (equally important to me)?

Well, you win some and you lose some.   America elected President Obama in 2008.  Now we can say, people didn’t get what they expected, but I don’t think we can insult the American people and say they were tricked or didn’t know what they were doing.  If they knew what they were doing when they elected President Bush, then they knew what they were doing when they elected President Obama.

If people are so scared one speech from the President will sway their children, then by all means, they should keep their kids home.  But honestly, don’t you think our kids know what our values are?  And where we stand?  Haven’t you taught them to speak up for what they believe?  Whether it’s popular or not?  Isn’t that what has always made this country great?

As my son often says, “don’t panic.”  People, it’s undignified.

A friend passed this along via Facebook … and I totally support this idea!  The 3/50 Project:  Pick 3 independent businesses in town that you’d really miss if they were gone, spend $50 a month with them … Save The Local Economy!  I’m in!

My three would have to be:
Sundance Books

Santa Fe Hotel

Paper Moon

What would yours be?

The 1,018-page health reform bill currently before the House makes no mention of abortion or any other specific medical services. This has prompted some anti-abortion advocates to claim that the bill contains a hidden “abortion mandate.”

And from there, it’s a very small jump to this kind of hyperbole:

“What you probably haven’t heard is that the health care bill being advanced by Democrats is the abortion industry’s dream come true. In fact it is the most disturbing piece of pro-abortion legislation in recent memory,” James Dobson of Focus on the Family told [anti-abortion] webcast participants. 

Bottom line?  Here are the marching orders:

Although the [health care reform] bill has been able to attract a wide variety of supporters from both the “pro-choice” and “pro-life” movements, socially conservative activists reject it in part because it provides funding for birth control and comprehensive sex education. 

And let’s be clear, by “abortion,” these opponents of health care reform mean terminating a pregnancy AND birth control pills, and emergency contraception, and …

Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League and executive director of STOPP International, described why the current battle actually goes far beyond what the public identifies as abortion to encompass nearly all reproductive health services.

Sedlak and his supporters consider emergency contraception, birth control pills and some other contraceptives as equivalent to abortion, leaving little room for compromise. Any health care reform bill that pays for coverage of virtually any women’s reproductive health services, regardless of their legality and widespread acceptance, will be morally unacceptable to them.

Might just note here that a HUGE, but clearly wacky and possibly even – according to some – immoral, majority of Americans support birth control and comprehensive sex education.  Really.

According to the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association:  The overwhelming majority of Americans support family planning. 

According to MSNBC:  Few Americans favor abstinence-only sex ed.

Most Americans, regardless of their political leanings, favor comprehensive sex education in schools over abstinence-only programs, researchers reported Monday.  Of the nearly 1,110 U.S. adults they surveyed, 82 percent supported programs that discuss abstinence as well as other methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Half were in outright opposition to abstinence-only education.

Even among self-described conservatives, 70 percent supported comprehensive sex ed., while 40 percent opposed the abstinence-only strategy.

Look, I totally understand that people have strongly held feelings about abortion … and they range from completely opposed, to completely in favor of safe, legal abortion … with MOST Americans falling in the middle somewhere.  While folks may call themselves “pro-life,” at the same time, they believe abortion should remain legal and safe and a private decision for a woman to make with her family and her doctor.

But is it any wonder people can’t stand elected officials when they can take a 1,000+ page document that doesn’t mention abortion, or any other medical procedure, even ONCE and claim its a “pro-abortion mandate”?