A short and sweet demand: we want contraception free for all--MEN and WOMEN. And real sex education for ALL kids. We want choice!
WHY?
According to the LATimes:
The abortion rate for 2009 was 15.1 abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing years, defined as 15 to 44 years old. The abortion ratio was 227 abortions per 1,000 live births. Those numbers represent a 5% decrease in the total number and rate of abortions from 2008 and the largest single-year drop during the decade that began in 2000. There was a 2% drop in one year in the abortion ratio, the CDC said.
From 2000 to 2009, the total number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions decreased 6%, 7%, and 8%, respectively, to the lowest levels at the end of the decade, it said.
Mississippi had the lowest abortion rate, at 4 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. The state also had only a couple of abortion providers and has the nation's highest teen birthrate. New York, second to California in number of abortion providers, had the highest abortion rate, about eight times that of Mississippi.
Let us explore further:
From the International Business News:
In April, the CDC similarly reported the nation’s teen-pregnancy rate fell 9 percent between 2009 and 2010. The agency also credited that decline to the widespread use of birth control, which it noted is more prevalent in states that require comprehensive sex education in schools.
States encouraging abstinence-only sex education -- such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas -- had the highest teen-pregnancy rates.
Keep in mind that teens are still having sex with horrible consequences. I read with growing sense of horror about the history of gonnerhea in an article by Jerome Groopman entitled: The Rise of Drug-Resistant Gonnerhea. Oct 1, 2012 issue. From the abstract:
Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the U.S. Only one class of drugs, called cephalosporins—cefixime and ceftriaxone—is known to reliably treat it, and for several years resistance to cefixime has been rising. Some public-health officials predict that in five to eight years the superbug will be widespread. In the U.S., gonorrhea in general is linked to poverty and youth. Scientists have made little progress in developing a vaccine that would protect against a gonococcus infection. The primary hope for stemming the expected epidemic of resistant gonorrhea lies in persuading people to alter their behavior.
one more thing that startled me from the CDC:
The CDC estimates there are 19 million new STD infections in the US each year.
Girls aged 15-19 have the highest rates of gonorrhea compared to every other demographic group.
Every year, 24,000 women in the US become infertile due to an untreated STD.
Young adults, ages 15-24, comprise only 25 percent of the sexually active population, but they acquire almost half of all new STD infections.
In 2010, more than 1.3 million cases of chlamydia were reported, the largest number ever for any condition.
From the CDC's 2010
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance report
They started it--but we will go back to the streets if we have too! This is far too important to leave to people who don't believe in science, don't want people to make choices they don't agree with, who deny reality of lived lives, who want to keep their children STUPID and who would rather risk their lives than give them life saving information.