Planned Parenthood held a conference yesterday, Nobody's Fool, which is an abstinence-plus sex education program. Abstinence-plus meaning: "While it encourages teens to postpone sex, it also tells teens to be sensible and use caution if and when they do become sexually active." Teens are given medically accurate, age-appropriate information about birth control.

Naturally,
Pro-life Waco was there to protest.

Texans for Life President Kyleen Wright declined to attend the actual conference, but she spoke at the protest. She opined that Planned Parenthood would withhold vital information about condom failure rates and the dreaded HPV, which causes cervical cancer, and characterized the progrram as "foolish" and "criminal".

Back in the reality-based community, Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer consulted the CDC website:

A more complete picture of HPV infection is available through the Centers for Disease Control, which notes the vast majority of HPV infections do not result in cancer. Scientists are continuing to study condom effectiveness against HPV. Several medical studies so far have found that condom use is associated with lower rates of cervical cancer, the CDC reports.

It should not surprise that the Pro-life lobby uses misleading information to denigrate sex education. What is surprising is how thoroughly the Republican Party of Texas support the pro-life lobby's efforts to quash comprehensive sex ed in this state and why Texans are permitting this to happen.

As Chris Bell commented at the SDEC meeting a couple weeks ago, (Read the whole thing here):

With the highest teen pregnancy rate in the country, Texas Democrats need the moral courage to stand up and protect birth control and give our kids the medically accurate information they need to know so they don’t get pregnant in the first place.


Heck, as the first (only?) rabbi to have graduated from St. John's school commented a few years ago at a Texas Freedom Network workshop "They [anti-sex ed people] have blood on their hands" when they withhold medically accurate information from teenagers - information that can help to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregancies and yes, abortions, since many abortion procedures result from teen pregnancies.
Rabid conservatism defeats itself!