Please Check the Facts

Everyone, including Republicans, Conservatives and Christians, are entitled to their opinion. But they are NOT entitled to their own facts.

Representative Randy Hultgren (R-IL) epitomizes the Conservative Republican in a bubble with his own set of facts that have no relation to reality.

Hultgren is pushing a bill to divert $110 million a year over the next five years from comprehensive sex education programs to programs that teach abstinence only.

His rationale for this is that programs pushing abstinence only until marriage curriculums have "incredible success records."

This is a statement of fact, not of opinion, and it's just flat out not true. Studies have consistently demonstrated that comprehensive sex education works better than abstinence only education.

A study by the University of Washington showed that students that had some sort of comprehensive sex education were 60% less likely to get pregnant or make someone pregnant.

In the meantime, on the other side of the aisle, a 2007 federal study on Abstinence Only Programs found that they had no impact on teen pregnancy.

Like I've said before, it's not the "Abstinence" part of the program that's the problem, it's the "Only" part. Yes, abstinence should be stressed but it's also useful to insure there is an understanding of the broader picture and why abstinence is so critical.

I continue to be amazed at how conservatives just make stuff up to make themselves feel good or justify their opinions or actions.