Romney hedges on abstinence-only
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Mitt Romney, responding to reporters' questions about sex education policy in the aftermath of the news that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter is pregnant, told reporters he had always thought abstinence should be part of a comprehensive sex education curriculum.
"I would not propose that people don't get any sex education but abstinence," he said.
But in 2006, as then-Governor Romney prepared to enter the Republican presidential primary, he announced with great fanfare that he would redirect money from a federal abstinence education grant -- money that had the state had been using to promote abstinence within comprehensive sex education programs and in PSA's -- into school programs that taught abstinence alone.
The move complied with new rules promulgated by the Bush administration restricting schools from using the money to teach anything but abstinence. The rules said programs funded by the grant must promote a strict eight-point message that premarital sex is harmful and that abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy.
The program that won the grant from the Romney administration to teach the new Massachusetts abstinence-only program, Healthy Futures, was a subsidiary of a Christian anti-abortion group, A Woman's Concern, though the Healthy Futures program itself did not promote religion or any particular views on abortion.
The Patrick administration followed a number of other states in backing out of the program last year because of the restrictions.
UPDATE: Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom says Romney's position on sex education has never changed and that all of the schools in Massachusetts with abstinence-only programs, he said, also had comprehensive sex ed programs.
Yeah, that's Palin's stance on the issue, too. See how well THAT worked out for her daughter.
rider3 you are clearly an idiot; number one who is against a young woman making the right decision and getting married and having the baby? number 2 mistakes are going to be made in life by every human being... but it is the actions we take after those that show what types of people we are.
palin is most likely for abstinence because she is pro life. i dont have facts but i am guessing the STRONG majority of abortions are from people who are not married. so she is saying teach kids to wait till they are married before engaging in sexual activity vs. promoting it in order to decrease the number of abortions.
#1,
cute....cause if she had had a sex education in school she would not have gotten pregnant. You dumb hick...ok lets put your idiotic statement to the test. Guess which state has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the nation...Guess what...it's not New york, or any other east coast state that hands out contraceptives like candy...it's not the West coast either...give up? It's Utah, that's right the mormon state that teach only abstinence...go crawl back into your hole...
Dean Wilkerson wrote, "Plus, the media hasn't spent any time on covering John Edwards' affair. They ignored the story for a year and were beat by that bastion of journalism, the National Enquirer. So, why are they covering the story about Gov. Palin's daughter so intensely? No need to state the obvious."
In terms of the media's present coverage of John Edwards' affair, I believe the major difference is that Edwards is not being nominated this week to become vice president of the United States. Palin is.
The manner in which Sarah Palin has managed her personal life and the lives of minor children in her care (Bristol) does speak directly to her suitability to be a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States.
You Republicans think there should be one standard for Democrats and another for your candidates. You don't want to see the handwriting on the wall: You face at least 4 years--hopefully 8, 12, or 16--as the minority party. You blew it when the US Supreme Court usurped the will of Americans and appointed George W. Bush president in 2000. The reckoning has arrived in 2008. Live with this and rebuild your party from the ground up. It is in shambles.
Hey jaaron: that's because they are brainwashed. It's doesn't work unless you're religious and brainwashed. Oh, so you say we should all be Mormons? Or religious and brainwashed? Hahahahaha!!! Nice one. Rider3 had the right answer. It obviously didn't work for her daughter. She should have been taught about CONDOMS because 99% of the time they can protect against unwanted pregnancies and some STDs. And 99% is a pretty damn good number, in case you didn't know.
Abstinence only is not the only solution. It's one idea in a mix of many options to give teenagers. People (especially Palin) need to grow up and realize that we are all having sex. To wait until marriage is ridiculous. I'm 30 and getting married. Do you all think I should have waited to have sex until my pending marriage? No, wait - don't tell me. I need to shed my eyes from your ignorance.
Bristol exemplifies the Evangelical female ideal.
Get pregnant, get married, stay home.
No schooling, no career, no independence.
In their eyes, her only role is to breed soldiers for Christ.
Who says that it is the job of government whether it be federal,state,counties or cities to teach sex education,this is absurd in my opinion.It is the job of mothers and fathers to teach their childrens the differrent between good and bad period.There is too much hypocracy because of governments involvement in peoples lives.Freedom means just that freedom to choose not limited freedom just because some jerks in governments tries to be the peoples parents.My parent taught me well but I make some choices that they did not approve of it because I exercise my independent and freedom to choose and in doing so I learned a great deal of lessons afterward.Brystol is not going to listen to her parents on everything for sure or else her freedom to choose is nothing but living in bondage.
Ignorance - Only Sex Education has driven up the rate of teen pregnancy after a decade of decline. Sarah Palin did not mention education at all in her snied, sarcastic speech last night. Her children do not appear to be on the track toward higher education either. She seems proud of her ignorance. In this regard, she exemplifies the worst part of the Republican Party. McCain should have picked a moderate running mate.
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