You know the climate change-obsessed liberals who claim every weather phenomenon proves them right? Hurricanes, blizzards, cold-snaps – no matter how counterfactual, they all prop up the global warming narrative.
Well the climate change Chicken Littles aren’t the only lefties given to such magical thinking. Take Slate writer Amanda Marcotte (please!). Marcotte claimed this week [1] that a drop in the number of teens having sex is the result of encouraging teens to use birth control and engage in sexual behavior. Meanwhile, she posited, education encouraging abstinence couldn’t possibly, ever, in a zillion years, have anything to do with it.
Her post highlighted a study that says sex among teens has declined significantly over the past 25 years. Marcotte pointed out this is due to kids choosing to delay sex and that kids are waiting longer to lose their virginity. “There’s a lot of reasons for this shift, but one can be safely ruled out: abstinence-only education.” Her proof: “general contraception use remains high among teenagers, and use of emergency contraception has gone up.”
So fewer kids are having sex, but they’re using more contraception? Does that mean the ones who are having sex are doing double time to make up for the others?
But never mind: “Kids are making better choices,” she assured readers, “despite abstinence-only education, not because of it.”
Marcotte is not only opposed to teaching teens about refraining from sex, but she is quick to cite a study claiming: “the explosion in Internet access and smartphones in particular gives teenagers unprecedented access to sexual health information, which promotes better contraception use and teaches kids how to put off sex until they’re ready.”
And those unfortunate kids who are taught abstinence probably don’t have cell phones or internet access (or phones or electricity), so they’re never going to learn how to … abstain?
“Comprehensive sex education can help kids delay sexual initiation,” Marcotte wrote. And “knowing more about sex might disincline kids to have it early.” It might. So might suggesting abstinence. But that’s out of the question.
No, the drop in teen sexual promiscuity must be the work of teen sex websites like Bedsider and Scarleteen, which promote sexual promiscuity. Scarleteen answers questions about sexual practices for teens which includes an “Ask us!” section about masturbation, and Bedsider even has a section called “Frisky Fridays,” encouraging sexual behavior.
So promoting abstinence doesn’t lead kids to abstinence, but showering them with condoms and yelling “Much as you like!” does. Remember that next time there’s a blizzard and you’re being lectured about global warming.