Category Archives: Medical Issues

Research-Based Realities

June 11 2007

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

America is in love with research.  Numbers grab our attention, statistics drive our decisions.

We collect numbers on everything.  We know from watching him that Magic Johnson is…well…magic on the basketball court.  But we are sure of it if we can chart his free-throw average.  We believe that Elvis was a music legend.  But we are convinced of it when someone lists his top ten hits and reports the sales revenue generated by his empire.

Fueled by computer technology, researchers have relegated nearly every subject today to binary code and statistical analysis.  Not surprisingly, our beliefs about sex, our sexual behavior, and the consequences of both, have been counted, input into computers, and crunched into numbers that have been sorted, scrutinized, analyzed, reported and debated.

Statistics on sex confirm what the ordinary person knows.  Teen sex is a problem.  We see the problem in our daily lives, but numbers and statistics define the problem.

Numbers and statistics also drive the work to cure the problems resulting from teen sex.  Give us a cure, we are told.  But make sure it is research-based.

This demand for research-based education is great news for abstinence educators.  Research gathered over the past forty years supports the truths taught in abstinence classes around our country.  Consider what research has proven:

  • STDs infect people even when condoms are used consistently and correctly.  Of the 25 common STDs today, several viruses and bacterium live on body areas not covered by a condom, including incurable genital herpes.  This helps to explain why one in six people over the age of 12 are infected with genital herpes.
  • Boys and girls are different.  For some unknown reason, of late, that has been in doubt.  But now we have research that confirms the different attitudes men and women have about sex, love and attachment.  We are different.  Truly.
  • Most men and women have personally experienced the power of sex to create a special bond.  But now we have research and science to explain why.  Oxytocin, released in the blood system during sex, creates an attachment between the lovers…whether or not true love exists.
  • Romantic breakups are hard enough for teens, but the emotional consequences of sex for our youth can be devastating.  We have always known that.  But now research has documented the link between teen sex and teen suicide rates.
  • If oxytocin, emotional stability, and freedom from STDs are not enough to justify abstaining from sex until marriage, we have even more research to motivate us.  A wide range of studies prove that married people are having the most sex and the best sex.  And marriage statistically provides the best outcomes for men, women and children…emotionally, physically and economically.
  • Parents have always felt that teens needed direction.  Research now confirms this.  Studies of brain development show that mature, analytical thought processes aren’t developed until the early to mid-twenties for most youth.  Teens need concrete and direction instruction from adults.
  • Research reported by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy tells us “There is some evidence to suggest that one of the reasons behind these trends is that more teens are taking a cautious attitude toward sex.”  Teens are ready to hear constructive education and receive support in maintaining sexual abstinence.

Abstinence education gives young people the truth about the consequences of teen sex…emotional, physical, social, and financial consequences documented by scientific research.

Research documents that young people are receptive to this information and are using it to choose to abstain from sex outside of marriage.  Best of all, even sexually active teens are choosing to return to sexual abstinence as the best path to health and well-being.

Finally, research proves that parents are the most significant factor in teen choices about sex and that parents support sexual abstinence as the best choice for their teens.  Abstinence education is a foundation of support for parents, providing the scientific and medically accurate facts confirming the wisdom abstinence until marriage.

Research-based education?  Abstinence education leads the way in providing the best message for securing the healthiest outcomes for our youth.  And research proves it.

If They Only Knew

June 4, 2007

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

I sit reflecting on a day of rounds in Washington D.C., talking with people who have the power to change what our children learn about sex.  This week, eight meetings with Congressmen and Congresswomen who will vote on funding needed to bring abstinence education to the children we all love.

I have talked with strong supporters of abstinence education.  And with fierce opponents.  In all cases, our talk has been cordial.  I welcome questions and try my best to supply answers, making a list of follow up reports and experts who might answer what I can’t.

Prepared with statistics and testimonials about the positive impact of abstinence education on our youth, I find these fall on the deaf ears of those members of Congress who have been poisoned by rhetoric from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, SIECUS, and the ACLU*. I try my best to convey the truths about abstinence education, but one simple thought is renewed at the end of each appointment…If They Only Knew…

If they only knew, if they sat in abstinence classes taught by the educators I know, if they heard the questions of the students, and the answers that follow, if they knew the hearts of the parents and teachers…if they only knew…there would be no way a conscionable person could deny this education to the children and parents who want it.

If they would sit in a class, hear presentations on the consequences of STDs for a teen…for adults…diseases impacting their lifelong goals and the future marriages and families most of them hope to have…

If they would listen to a lesson on teen pregnancy, the demands it places on everyone involved, the challenges it poses for teens in finishing a high school education, the struggles of a single mother providing for a child the attention and resources that two-parent families have at hand…

If they would participate in classroom activities and discussions where students share their hopes for the future, their dreams for happiness and their plans to make their hopes and dreams a reality…

If they would…then these Congressional policy makers would know why sexual abstinence is the singular message our youth need to hear, a message that points to the path that guarantees that the hopes and dreams of our teens will not be derailed by the consequences of sexual activity.

But they haven’t.  Many of these policy makers haven’t witnessed the realities of the very education they will vote on.  They haven’t seen the eager and thankful reception of abstinence education by teens who know the truth when someone takes the time to present it.

They haven’t…so I invite them.  Please, we would love to have you, our Congressional member, or one of the members of your staff come and visit our classes and see for yourselves.  If you see it, you will know the truth of what is happening in abstinence education, the truth and support given teens in choosing to remain sexually abstinent, securing their healthiest and happiest futures.  Please, we want you to see for yourselves.

There is precious little time for Members of Congress to see the realities of abstinence education before they vote on abstinence funding.  It is painful to think people who oppose abstinence education and vote against it may also be people who have never taken the time to see it in action for themselves.

If they only knew!

Technically Speaking

October 9, 2006

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

MS Magazine has once again given cover placement to a story about abortion.  Its October 10 issue is a megaphone for women who are announcing, “We Had Abortions.”

Ironically, this new effort to defend abortion points out the failure of the pro-abortion movement during the past thirty years.  As Kathleen Parker points out, past arguments defending American abortion policies have focused on the technical aspects of abortion.

Eleanor Smeal, publisher of MS Magazine, loses no opportunity to point out the obvious to Tucker Carlson.  Technically speaking, she reminds him that abortion is “a medical procedure, that’s obvious.”  She can point to a long list of technical terminology that has been crafted to describe the indescribable.

The litany of techno-talk is, “It’s a woman’s right to choose a medical procedure that removes a small clump of cells from her own body…a simple surgical procedure, the D & E, dilation and evacuation, where the physician extracts the products of conception from the uterus.”  And, technically speaking, they have described abortion.

In a natural progression, much of the dialogue describing the sex that leads to the product of conception that leads to the surgical procedure…all of this talk about sex…has also turned technical since Roe v. Wade.  Sex education, as liberal abortion proponents would have it, is all about technique.

Going into the classroom with boxes of condoms and things to put condoms on, they have reduced sex to technique…ways that children can be taught technically how to have sex and be somewhat, moderately, possibly and hopefully saferrrrrrrrr.

If humans were cars, and if we were installing a muffler on a child car, perhaps we could let these educators get away with it.  But we are not.  And children are not.  Cars, that is.

Cars are things.  Humans are living things.  Living, breathing, hoping, dreaming and loving.  We are not meant to be handled by technoids who describe invasive “procedures” and erotic “actions” with detached language devoid of emotion.

My mind is seared with the memory of a Planned Parenthood educator who demanded allegiance to the language of technique.  Speaking to a friendly National Organization of Women (NOW) audience, she decried the national acceptance of the “medically inaccurate” term partial-birth abortion.  “That’s not what it is!” she declared.  “It’s a D&E.  That’s the accurate medical terminology.  There is no such procedure as partial-birth abortion.”

In the next breathe, she launched into a speech against abstinence education.  “Those programs are terrible…talking about differences between men and women, emotional consequences of sex and promoting marriage.”  Technically speaking, she demanded a return to procedural instructions on how to install a condom on a teen.

Technically speaking, the rationale of the past thirty years is that we only have to perfect the technical aspects of having sex without consequences and then describe that technique in a perfectly technical way.  And it works…as long as you have a heart that is unmoved by a single human tear or the love expressed in a kiss on the cheek.

Why else would MS Magazine, Planned Parenthood, and NOW work so hard to ignore the real pain of people who bought into the false promises of “safe sex”?  Where are the articles describing the experiences of women who refused to be “Silent No More,” the women abused by an abortion industry that hides behind technique?

Already, commentaries responding to the MS Magazine article are pointing out the obvious.  Technique is never well-used to deal with matters of the human heart, the matters of sex…and love…as people have known them since Adam and Eve.

The magazine has invited women to open their hearts.  And as the women describe why they “chose” abortion, readers are asking the many obvious questions that the editors left unasked…and unanswered.

Technically speaking, describing a medical procedure and the events of my life leading up to the surgery, leaves the most important questions unanswered.  How did I close my eyes to the product of conception that could have held my hand and given me a hug?  Where is the man who promised me love and protection?

Great women of courage have told this story.  But you won’t read about it in MS Magazine.

Willing to deal truthfully with what sex and the consequences of sex are, courageous women have humbled themselves to reveal the lies of technical lingo.  They lead important national movements on college campuses, in state legislatures, and in sex education programs.

This, Ms. Smeal, is a story worth telling.  Consider it for your next issue.  Technically speaking, though, I’m not holding my breath. 

 December 26, 2005 –  Small Acts of Courage

June 6, 2005 –  Planned Parenthood’s War Against Choice

  See Archives for past editorials.

 

Expiration Date on Parents

October 2, 2006

 It always happens.  Every time our daughter arrives with a medical malady, it’s always the same.  Last time it was a headache.  Jamie dragged herself in the front door and asked me if I had any aspirin.  “Sure,” I said, “in the bathroom.”

Dropping her purse to the floor, she made a beeline around the corner.  From the kitchen, I heard loud sighs, harrumphs, and plunks as she threw one bottle after the next into the waste can.  Stomping out of bathroom, she grabbed her car keys.  I didn’t have to ask where she was going.  I knew.

Throwing her purse over her shoulder, she knew I knew.  But she told me anyway…just to make a point.  “I can’t believe it.  Don’t you know you’re supposed to throw medicines away after they expire!”

Expiration dates are a big thing in my household only because my children are the official expiration cops who write me up.  Grown now, and on their own, they have their work cut out for themselves when they come for a visit.  Everything is suspect.  No family dinner is safe until the fridge is detoxed of outdated cans and boxes.

Expiration dates are also becoming a big thing in America… impacting more than aspirin and cheese.  Much more.

One day…the day they bring their precious baby home from the hospital, parents are in charge.  They are expected to watch over every detail that might impact their children…sugar content, child seats, exercise habits, television, homework, playmates and transfats.  Parents are in control.

Then one day…one undefined day, when they aren’t aware of anything being different, parents expire.  They don’t expire because they are tired of being parents.  They expire because society is tired of listening to parents.

Case in point, the Senate heads home this week after failing to bring Senate Bill 403 to a vote.  It is a sign that parents have passed their expiration date.  Once allowed oversight over the health of their children, parents are no longer deemed necessary for oversight of a major life-impacting surgery performed on their daughters, abortion.

The Child Custody Protection Act would have reaffirmed the parent’s right to oversee the healthcare of their daughters.  It supported state parental notification laws already in existence.  But the Senate, in their wisdom, noted the expiration date on parents and declared that they were irrelevant.

Parents are passing their useful life all over the country.  You can’t tell it by looking at them.  Neither can you tell it by talking with them.  The easiest way to tell that they have reached their expiration date is by noting the actions of those who would thwart their involvement in the lives of their children.

In Mesa, Arizona, a presenter announced the opening of a health clinic specifically targeting teens.  She said they had set a sign out on the sidewalk so that kids on the way home from school would have to literally step over it.  She said, figuratively, that clinic workers were so anxious to reach teens that they might even go out to the sidewalk themselves to “get” the teens.  Where were the parents?  Expired.

Around the country, Planned Parenthood offices and other like-minded organizations reach out to students with “confidential” birth control.  The parents?  Expired.

Then, when the “confidential” birth control fails, children may purchase an abortion.  In Arizona, Governor Napolitano this year vetoed a bill requiring notarized signatures on parental consent forms. Once again, she tuned her ear to the cries of Planned Parenthood.  In spite of convincing testimony from parents that signatures are easily forged or falsified, the Governor ignored the will of parents in Arizona.  She must have noticed their expiration date.

Around the country, parents’ efforts to stay connected to their children is under assault.  As the number rises for states passing laws providing for parental consent and notification, so, too, rises the number of assaults on these laws.

Now, thanks to the U.S. Senate, even when an effective parental notification law is in place, it doesn’t matter.  It should matter.  But it doesn’t.  Anyone can transport a minor across state lines to circumvent the law that upholds a parent’s right to be involved in an abortion decision.  Expired.

I get a headache thinking about the next time Jamie might arrive with a headache of her own.  It’s been over a year since she bought my last bottle of aspirin.  It’s probably expired by now.

It could be worse.  Thankfully, she is grown and safe from the social engineers who are redesigning America.  I hate to think what she would do if she knew her mom had passed the expiration date for parents.

 

December 26, 2005 – Small Acts of Courage

June 6, 2005 – Planned Parenthood’s War Against Choice

 See Archives for past editorials.

Poisoning Childhood

September 11, 2006

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

She stands with her arms folded resolutely across her chest.  In the background of the photo, you can see playground equipment.  She is the mom protecting our children in this lead magazine article about the dangers of pest control spraying in the nation’s schools.

On the Internet, a website tracks reports of school pesticide exposure incidents.  In 1995, case #94415050501, records parents’ complaints that their children had been exposed to pesticides on the school playground.  One child in 5th grade broke out in hives.  However, medical reports did not substantiate any claim that the child’s hives were due to pesticide exposure at school. Investigators also documented chemical applications on a neighboring farm the day before.

Another website links dangers from pesticides to “hazardous environmental exposures” in general.  Their “Guiding Principles for Children’s Environmental Health” is a model of militant insistence on the right of children and adults “to know about proven and potential hazards to their environmental health and safety.”

This type of advocacy related to health issues, especially where children are concerned, has become commonplace.  In the 1950s no cigarette smoker could have envisioned a complete city-wide ban for smokers in public buildings and restaurants.

Food police are building campaigns to crack down on fast food establishments…in spite of the fact that no one is dragged through a drive-in against their will and forced to order a fat-laden super-sized order of fries.  If groceries go the way of cigarettes, one day we might be buying cookies with bold warnings from the Surgeon General printed on the side.

Thus, it is no surprise to read a top story this morning about a group of renowned psychologists, academics, teachers’ leaders and authors who say that “action is needed now in order to prevent the death of childhood.”

The 110-strong lobby group has written a letter to the Daily Telegraph asking that the Government intervene.  Without immediate action, children will “suffer irretrievable psychological and physical damage.”

The letter insists that children “still need what developing human beings have always needed, including real food (as opposed to processed ‘junk’), real play (as opposed to sedentary screen-based entertainment), first-hand experience of the world they live in and regular interaction with the real-life significant adults in their lives.”

It is no surprise that they point their fingers at marketing forces for making children “act and dress like mini-adults.”  Sue Palmer, former head teacher and author of Toxic Childhood passed the letter.  “I think it is shocking,” she said.  “We must make a public statement.”

The news story headline pounds in the message…”Poisoning Childhood.”  It is reassuring to see the experts calling adults to account for the welfare of children.  Then, again…

With health at the top of every agenda in public policy and the media, one must wonder why there is one health epidemic that is being shoved under the rug as part of a campaign of political correctness.

A child chooses a snack food laced with trans fats, and we call for the jailing of corporate executives.  A child chooses to have sex, with or without a condom, and we herald her as a “responsible” and “mature” person who is “finding her sexual identity.”

We pinch out cigarettes across the room because we don’t want junior to be brain damaged by second-hand smoke.  Then, at school, as part of a liberated sex education program, we hand out the address to the local abortion clinic where kids can get tested for one of the 25 rampant sexually transmitted diseases, some of them fatal…all under the shield of confidentiality…out of the purview of parents.

Go figure.  Poisoning childhood?  Maybe if someone could link trans fats to sexual dysfunction, our children might have a fighting chance at entering adulthood with their health and well-being in tact.

On the other hand, perhaps it is time for adults to attend to teen sex with the same intensity they give to cigarettes in the next room.  We are poisoning childhood, and it is time to stop.

 

July 10, 2006 –  How Young Is Too Young?

 See Archives for past editorials.