Category Archives: Sex Education

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 2

June 11, 2014

Sitting on the plane, waiting for takeoff, I opened the newspaper in my lap. I couldn’t believe my Condom Pkgseyes!

Finally! Finally, the truth about condoms was coming out. In the newspaper. Everyone would finally hear the truth about condoms.

This meant I could get my life back. I could quit researching and writing about condoms and sex education. I could return to my garden and plant flowers instead.

For the past five years, I had spent hours in the library and at the keyboard. On the telephone, I interviewed sex educators from all parts of the country. Interviews were transcribed, and information was organized into file folders. And I was on the plane, now, headed for a Miami conference on sex education.

Condoms were the culprit. At the time, with HIV/AIDS taking hold in our culture, we had very little knowledge about the disease. People were dying, and we still didn’t have the whole story about how they contracted HIV or when we might have a cure.

Condoms were our only ally. Condoms protect. Use a condom. Use a condom consistently and correctly…every time…everywhere…put a basket of condoms in the bathroom, in the school office…everywhere! Now! Use a condom!

Condoms made us feel safe. We could still have all the sex we wanted…with whomever we wanted…as long as we used a condom…consistently and correctly. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!

CDC Logo StethAfter all…the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, was looking after us.

Linking arms with Planned Parenthood, SIECUS and state health departments, the CDC gave its nod to wrapping the United States up in one giant condom campaign for “SAFE SEX”:

  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Ohio held a condom giveaway – a bright yellow coupon redeemable for free condoms and a MacDonald’s gift certificate.Condom MacD
  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Southern Arizona spent $100,000 on “Use Condom Sense” campaign that featured billboards on buses showing a 13-year-old girl holding up a condom. Included in the campaign, 19 condom machines were placed in teen hang-outs, including the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department.
  • 2002, Planned Parenthood celebrated the introduction of The Planned Parenthood Condom with a coupon for a free condom – or – four free condoms if you paid for STD and/or HIV testing.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood sponsored a condom art contest.Condom Lollipop
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood offered condoms packaged like lollipops and promoted condom key chains.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood Michigan’s teen program held condom art workshops. “Make a beautiful creation out of condoms, find out all the facts on using condoms correctly, and get a free gift.”

Where was the CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.     Sleeping Boy

Promoting condoms came at a price…paid by the US taxpayers…a staggering sum of dollars handed out through government grants. One report documented over $2,000,000 divided Dollar Signbetween Planned Parenthood ($991,109) and four other organizations. Grabbing every dollar possible, the ACLU, SIECUS and 32 groups held a press conference designed to stop funding of abstinence programs.

Promoting condoms, finally a national pastime, left little money or incentive for the government to deliver another message to teens…abstain from sex. In fact, messages that encouraged sexual abstinence for teens were mocked. In extreme outbursts of hostility, legislators even accused abstinence programs of “killing teens.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.        Sleeping Boy

Ironically, as king of the SAFE SEX condom campaign, Planned Parenthood failed the condom tests performed by Consumer Reports Magazine. Of the 23 condoms tested, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Honeydew and Assorted Colors condoms scored the worst. Not taking this lying down, Planned Parenthood submitted their condoms to “independent testing.” Anyone surprised that Planned Parenthood then proclaimed their condoms “excellent”?

Condoms made us feel safe. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!Heart Flying

At a college presentation on Valentine’s Day, a young man stood at the front of the crowded auditorium, raised his right hand and spoke for all Americans, “I pledge allegiance to the condom.”

Now, finally, twenty years after HIV struck America…

Finally, sitting on the plane bound for Miami, I read the national story on condoms again and closed my eyes in gratitude. “Finally,” I told myself, “someone is paying attention to the truth Alarm Clockabout condoms. The press is finally reporting on the medical truths about condoms.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  It blinked, shook its head…and woke up. Finally.

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NEXT WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 3, The Truth about Condoms…Finally!

LAST WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 1

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 1

June 5, 2014

CDC LogoWe have much to thank the CDC for!  It is on the forefront of many health battles.  CDC medical teams even risk their own lives, rushing to the aid of victims around the world, most recently fighting the Ebola virus.

But…there is one health threat that suffers from the failure of the CDC to be truthful with the American people.  We are suffering.  And the CDC is worse than silent…the CDC ignores and silences expert voices and research that could protect us.

It is hard to imagine the CDC Ostrich Runactually putting the health of people at risk.    For years, we watched the CDC run from one threat to the next:  drugs, tobacco, polio, small pox.  We learned to trust the CDC.  That was before the sexual revolution and…

…the discovery of AIDS.  The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5, 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report newsletter reported unusual clusters of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.  Over the next 18 months, more PCP clusters were discovered among otherwise healthy men in cities throughout the country.

Ostrich HaltThe CDC was stopped dead in its tracks.  It scrambled to identify the HIV/AIDS connection and its methods of transmission and treatment, as people worried about “catching” the HIV virus.  Every human activity was originally suspect:  drinking cups, sharing straws, kissing, open cuts, mosquito bites, injections…and of course…sexual activity.  Without the Internet, information followed slowly on the trail blazed by gossip and greased by fear.

Ryan WhitePerhaps no one more clearly tells the story of AIDS in the early days than Ryan White, an engaging, fun-loving young teen who eventually died of AIDS.  In December, 1984, over four years after the first American incidence of AIDS came to light, Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS.  Up to this point, the disease had largely been associated with the male gay community.  White suffered from hemophilia, and was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion.

White became an instant poster child for AIDS.  Clearly, he was an innocent victim.  Nevertheless, he was expelled from his middle school, triggering a lengthy court battle and thrusting him into the international spotlight.  Through the courage of White and his family, America and the world began to sift through all of the fears about AIDS and separate fact from fiction.

CDC Logo StethBy now, the CDC had lost its grip on the messaging for AIDS.  Ostrich RunRunning from one public relations crisis to the next, the CDC forgot its ultimate foundational role as the defender of public health.  Instead of demanding that public bath houses, a known haven for promiscuous gay sex, the CDC decided to make certain they focused on reassuring the American people that they were not in danger of infection.  The key to health, according to the CDC, was protection.  Protect Yourself!  Wrestling coaches were told to stop the match if a student got cut.  They were given medical latex gloves to wipe blood off the wrestling mat.  Meanwhile, parents were reassured…yes…the family could safely share eating utensils.

Everything was spelled out by the CDC:  clean needles for drug users, latex gloves for classroom teachers, face masks for dentists.  Quit worrying about the mosquitoes.  Every area of life was managed for protecting the public from HIV…every area but one.   What is missing from this discussion?  Sex Logo Chalkboard

One can almost feel sorry for the CDC.  CDC  The sexual revolution had been in full swing for more than twenty years, reinforced with birth control, drugs and alcohol.  Sex was everywhere…because it was FREE.  Sex Gender Logos

Americans had grown used to their FREE SEX.  The CDC was caught in a social trap.  AIDS was clearly driven by sexual activity.  They could tell Americans to give up their free “right” to have sex with whomever and whenever.  Or they could…

Well, … options were slim.  One thing was certain.  We had an AIDS epidemic on our hands.AIDS Stop Hand  The CDC squinted its eyes and surveyed the American scene.  People expected them to do one thing…above all…Stop Aids.  How could the CDC stop AIDS without having to stop sex?

NEXT WEEK…CDC: DERELICTION of DUTY, Pt. 2

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved

The CDC: Does Medical Accuracy Matter Anymore?

May 29, 2014

FLASH sex education is coming to save Arizona children! Imported from the state of Washington, FLASH is sold as a trustworthy source of information for teaching sex.

Curious about FLASH, I took to the Internet. Wow! Double Wow!!

As expected, FLASH teaches condoms. But it doesn’t stop there…

**Dental Dams**

Think we’re talking about a trip to the dentist? In a sex education lesson – dental dams? Not a chance.

Students in high school…sophomores…are taught to cut a latex condom with scissors to make a dental dam…for use in having oral sex. Does this make you ask even one question? Even one?

What about “medical accuracy?” How in the world would a dental dam prevent STDs for people engaging in oral sex? So I asked. I asked the Director of Health Education in Washington. And I asked the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC.

What is the medically accurate truth about dental dams? Read on…Arrow Down Blue

Line Break 2 May 10Inkwell Black Short
To:   CDC  CDCInfo@cdc.gov
Subject: Dental Dams STI

Question: Your fact sheet on Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) recommends “using latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex” in order to “avoid getting PID.” Please refer me to the science-based studies that give evidence on the efficacy of dental dams for prevention of PID.

Thank you, Jane Jimenez

Line Break 2Typewriter SketchMay 14
Good Morning Ms. Jimenez,

Thank you for your inquiry. Below is the response from our subject matter expert.

Oral sex is a common sexual practice and may serve as a route of transmission for Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis, causative organisms of PID. Generally, the use of a physical barrier, such as a dental dam, during oral sex can reduce the risk of transmission of HIV and other STDs. Please see the references in attached articles for possible supporting evidence supporting effectiveness of dental dams in prevention of STDs:

  • Do women use dental dams? Safer sex practices of lesbians and other women who have sex with women
  • Sexual practices and dental dam use among women prisoners – a mixed methods study

I hope this helps to answer your question.
Public Inquiries, Division of STD Prevention    CDC

Line Break 2Inkwell Black Short

May 14
To:  CDC  dstd2@CDC.gov
Dear “Public Inquiries,”

Thank you for sending the two studies named above related to dental dams.  However, I am at a loss as to how to use them as scientific proof of the claim on your Pelvic Inflammatory Disease [PID] – CDC Fact Sheet [which states]:

  • You can prevent PID if you know how to protect yourself.
  • You can protect yourself from getting PID by

— Not having sex;

— Being in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and has negative STD test results;

— Using latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex. [bold added]

I am also alarmed that this CDC Fact Sheet is being used by educators and curricula around the country to promote recommendations to adolescents on sexual practices that appear to have no verifiable efficacy.

In brief, neither of these two studies you provided me has any bearing on the efficacy of using dental dams for prevention of STDs:

Checkmark Green Lg The studies admit in their own reports that there is “no research evidence” to support the CDC Fact Sheet claimthere is no research evidence supporting the use of dental dams or their effectiveness in preventing HIV transmission. [emphasis added]

Checkmark Green Lg The two studies involve 1) a lesbian population and 2) a women’s prison population, where lesbian sex is implied if not stated.  Heterosexual activity is only incidental in the surveys.

Checkmark Green LgThe two populations studied have no bearing on the U.S. general population at large, even less so on the U.S. general adolescent student sub-population.

Checkmark Green LgThe studies involve self-reporting interviews & surveys of lesbian subjects regarding their sexual behaviors without any correlation to medical studies on incidence rates of STDs, much less any attempt to prove a reduction in the incidence of STD infections and a correlation of such a reduction with use of dental dams.

Checkmark Green LgStudies make use of terms that have no scientific definition or rationale.  For example, appropriate as barrier protection, is supposedly studied during the course of one study without any quantifiable or valid justification for the word “appropriate” related to use of dental dams.

Checkmark Green LgNo medical exams of study participants are ever done to identify STD infections present before, during or after the interviews or sexual encounters.  No STD data of any kind is presented.

Certainly, the CDC must appreciate the implications of CDC claims about sexual behaviors and their risks related to STDs and pregnancy.  It is hard to imagine the CDC claim regarding dental dams would be made with only these two studies as backup.

This is a serious issue in light of the thousands of students who will be CDCtaught to rely on dental dams contrary to any scientific research that supports the CDC claim.  This CDC Fact Sheet puts the health of young people and others at risk.

This is of utmost and immediate importance.  Our local school district is constructing their sex education program to be presented next year to over 13,000 students. The recommendation of dental dams is in their current working draft.

Please give me the name of the CDC individual responsible for the information on the CDC Fact Sheet and how to reach them.

Sincerely, Jane Jimenez

Line Break 2

Typewriter SketchMay 23, 2014
Good Morning Ms. Jimenez,

Thank you for your insight into the content of the PID fact sheet. We appreciate your feedback and are currently reviewing the literature. We will promptly update the fact sheet accordingly. Once again, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

Public Inquiries
Division of STD Prevention  CDC

Line Break 2

Cuckoo ClockUh, um, uh, duh, soooo…..

Tick, tock, tick, tock…

I’m waiting…

You’re waiting…we’re all waiting…

For just a little medical accuracy…                                    Sleeping Boy

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

 

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved

Lies, Lies and Damned Lies

April 29, 2013

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

If the Internet has any value at all, you would think it would be in its role in “truth telling.”  If only.

Lies and deceit are as old as Adam and Eve.  Lying is an equal opportunity sin:  The man Adam Eveanswered God, “The woman you put here with me….The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Lying is eternal.  Only one generation out of the Garden, Cain took advantage of lies in an attempt to deceive his Maker.  Where was Able?  “I don’t know,” Cain said…presumably with a straight face.

The Bible abounds in wisdom grounded in knowing the difference between truth and lies.  Proverbs warns us.  Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.  [Prov 26:24 NIV]  Satan, the quintessential evil being, is named Father of all lies.

There is only one reason that lying is so pervasive.  There is profit in being a good liar.  If successful, you can retain your deed to the Garden of Eden; you can avoid the mark of Cain for murder.

Ford PintoFord car company tried its best.  And it almost got away with a very profitable lie.  In 1968, the Ford Pinto was set up to be a hot-selling, middle-America car.  Cute car, cute name…the Pinto was perfect for families on a budget and for their children just learning to drive.  Only problem?  Every once in a while, in a simple fender-bender car accident, the Pinto would explode into flames.  And flames are quite deadly to the people involved.

In May 1972, Lily Gray was traveling with thirteen year old Richard Grimshaw in a 1972 Pinto when their car was struck by another car traveling approximately thirty miles per hour.  The impact ignited a fire in the Pinto which killed Lily Gray and left Richard Grimshaw with devastating injuries.  A judgment was rendered against Ford and the jury awarded the Gray family $560,000 and Matthew Grimshaw $2.5 million in compensatory damages.  The surprise came when the jury awarded $125 million in punitive damages as well.  This was subsequently reduced to $3.5 million.

Long ago, when truth was recorded on scrolls, one can imagine how difficult it would have been to ride a donkey down to the local synagogue and dig through their scroll library, unrolling and rolling back leather scrolls in a search for the damning evidence to prove that Ford lied.  With the Internet, just type in “Ford Pinto,” and your evidence is at hand.  Voila!  Search finished. They lied.

The Internet, not yet in existence, would have been a great help in the 70s to reveal truth about the Pinto, saving time…and more importantly…saving lives.  It took more deaths, many years, and thousands of hours upon hours of research to prove that the deaths in Pinto accidents were caused by corporate greed.  Law professor Palmiter explains

Although Ford had access to a new design which would decrease the possibility of the Ford Pinto from exploding, the company chose not to implement the design, which would have cost $11 per car, even though it had done an analysis showing that the new design would result in 180 less deaths.

In the current age, no matter how you count the years between Genesis and today, we are witnesses to a “whole lot of lying going on.”  Just last night, in the commercial breaks for a one hour crime drama, three different drug companies are being accused of lying.  The companies told consumers, “Take our drug.  It is good for you.”  They are being sued.  Liars?

Did you take Accutane, Zoloft, or Actos?  One word typed into your Internet search engine…one Accutane Bookclick… “Enter”…and the entire library of the universe is at your disposal.  You would think that is enough to find truth and reveal lies…wouldn’t you?

If only!

And these drugs are the simple cases.  Don’t even think about investigating lies that involve our sexually promiscuous society.

Have you ever wondered about the money to be made in the sex industry?  Forget the obvious – pornography and prostitution.  What about all of the money to be made by encouraging people of all ages to have all types of sex at any time with anyone for any reason?

Dollar SignIf the question does not produce a string of dollar signs in your mind, please return to Genesis.  If any question has merits in today’s culture, this is it.    What profits are to be made by convincing people to have more of what they already are programmed to desire?  Sex.

And…with all that money at stake…what is the possibility that there are lies out there waiting to be discovered?  Sex…money…lies?  It’s a calculation you can bet on.

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KEEP POSTED:

Upcoming columns will expose the many profits to be had for those in our culture  who are in the business of promoting free and easy sex.  Yes, there is a cost involved in “free” sex.

Illinois Teaches Teens How to Do Safe Sex?

April 15, 2013

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

We can all agree on the problem with teens and sex.  We have too much of it, along with the attendant problematic results:  STDs, single parent homes, absent fathers, abortion, economic challenges, and more.  Since the 1960s and the start of the sexual revolution, we have watched these problems escalate.  We have wrung our hands.  And we have sought solutions.

Illinois legislators think they have the solution.  And in their eagerness to “solve the problem,” they are preparing to mandate the “solution” that many believe is one of the problems that got us into the fix we are in.

For half a century, we have explored ways to address the problems associated with teen sex.  Sadly, the first problem is our inability to even agree on the problem at hand.  Do we…

  • Suffer from Puritanical sexual standards, or
  • Believe that sex has no meaning other than the actual physical encounter…
  • Welcome babies as the blessing of our fertility, or
  • Dispose of babies as inconvenient byproducts of sexual pleasure…
  • Address the different sexual needs of men and women emotionally and physically, or
  • Maintain that gender has no significance based on our “sexual equality”…
  • Help parents in their roles as educators for their children on sexual values, or
  • Bypass parents as ignorant stewards of their child’s sexual health…?

This list of conflicting values and beliefs could fill up a spiral student college notebook.  Not surprisingly, the supposed “solutions” to the problems of teen sex could fill up ten spiral student college notebooks.

In Illinois, legislators have put their collective finger on the solution.  They have decided to bet on condoms and contraception.  But they are not betting with their own lives.

Legislators are betting the lives of all Illinois school children on a pipe dream, betting these young wedding giftlives on a “solution” that is actually a problem gift-wrapped in wishful thinking.  They want all Illinois sex education programs to instruct students on how to use a condom and on how to take birth control.

They are not the first to throw condoms at kids, and they won’t be the last.  But, after 50 years of condoms in baskets, free for the taking, we have not solved anything.  Indeed, the very real possibility is that we have made the problem worse.  It is a conundrum that perplexes many.

How could we possibly go wrong in teaching children the use of condoms and contraception?  Let us count the ways:

  • The language of safe and protection is used to sell condoms.  True safety is always safe – 100% of the time.  Medically accurate information reveals that condoms and contraception fail…even with experienced users. [See testimony linked below for detailed information.]
  • The singular “problem” that concerns legislators is pregnancy.  How do they prevent babies?  Many young people do not see babies as a problem.  In fact, for many young people, babies can be a solution for these teens to their own set of problems totally ignored by adults.
  • Condoms and contraception address one primary problem:  pregnancy.  They are not the solution to STDs and can even magnify exposure to STDs.  STDs are not simply “cured” with a few antibiotics.  They lead to sterility, serious lifelong health problems, cancer and death.
  • Classroom educators who promote condoms and contraception through their demonstrations are giving medical advice and instruction to minor children.  These teachers are not subject to the professional medical standards that govern any other area of medicine: credentialing, supervision and medical liability.
  • Condom and contraception instruction lacks any serious follow up with minor children: testing for their understanding, their retention of information or the appropriateness of information for their individual situations.
  • Condom and contraception instruction is often conducted “in the shadows,” in such a way as to distance children from parents and important adults in their lives.  In some cases, parents are characterized by instructors as ignorant, out of touch, and untrustworthy.
  • Condom and contraception instruction empowers people who prey on children, implying that teen sex is appropriate and isolating children from true protection in their families and from medical professionals.
  • Abortion is the unspoken fallback option promoted – and sold –  for any failure of a condom or contraception.  It is no surprise that many of the same businesses that sell abortion are lead advocates for and teachers of contraception.

These are serious drawbacks to the proposed mandate in Illinois.  But the greatest problem with the solution is its failure to actually and directly teach students the healthiest choice of all.

The proposed legislation withholds truth from our children.  The bill “makes changes to provide that all classes that teach sex education and discuss sexual intercourse in grades 6 through 12 shall emphasize that abstinence from sexual intercourse is a responsible and positive decision.” [underlining added]

This statement is worded to suggest that there is a long list of responsible and positive decisions Children Kissing Their Father on His Cheeksabout sex that students can use to choose the one they like best.  It suggests that abstinence is just one of many decisions the student is free to choose from  They can responsibly consider no sex…or they can responsibly consider sex with a condom.  Either…or…both decisions are on the list of “responsible sex”  given approval by the instructor.

Consider that a sixth grade student is 11 to 12 years old.  Is that what you want a stranger to be teaching your child?  Do you want the teacher to tell your 12-year-old daughter that she can have “safe” and “responsible” sex if she uses a condom and that abstinence from sex is just one option of many “good choices?”

Girl giving mom flowers.Condoms and contraception are mechanical fixes used to address a condition of the heart and soul.  Children want love.  They want acceptance and affection.  These are not sexual needs.  They are heart needs.

We can teach children healthy approaches to life, and we can guide them in those choices.  We do that in the areas of diet, smoking, driving and drugs.  It is time to step up to the plate and truly safeguard the sexual health and future for our children.

Illinois…Illinois legislators…the children of your state deserve the best and truest options of all.  If education is not directed to the highest and best goals for our children, then we will get the problems that we deserve.  Unfortunately for our children, we are playing with their lives and with their futures.  They deserve better.

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NOTE:  Detailed testimony presented by Scott Phelps to the Illinois State Legislator presents research and professional evidence, including CDC guidelines, supporting a commitment to abstinence until marriage education for students in grades 6 to 12.

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ARCHIVES – RELATED COLUMNS

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April 16, 2004:   One Stop Shopping