Abstinence is enough for our children's textbooks

By KYLEEN WRIGHT

After reading the Rev. George Mason's column, "Theology of Sex," it strikes me that although we appear to be on opposite sides of this issue, we have much in common.

Like Dr. Mason, I am also teaching my children abstinence, and agree that it is not necessary to use shame, fear or incomplete information to teach our children about human sexuality.

I imagine most parents would agree that schools have no business undermining what we are teaching our teens about sex and the responsibility that accompanies it. Just as it is not the school's place to teach my sons religion, neither is it the school's place to teach human sexuality in a way that contradicts our faith, as well as the laws of this state.

Don't we all support age-appropriate and medically accurate information? The devil is in the details. Who decides what is age-appropriate information for the eighth- and ninth-graders who will take this mandatory health course?

In 1995, a bipartisan Legislature answered the question. Abstinence must be stressed, but local school boards can decide what (if any) sex education will be taught in addition to the mandatory abstinence education. Local health advisory committees, which are to be dominated by parents, are set up to assist each local school board with this decision. In addition, parents, as the ultimate decision makers, were guaranteed the right to pull their children out of any of these programs.

Including sensitive material in the textbook of a mandatory health course is a backdoor attempt to violate the spirit of the law, if not the law itself. While I am content to let liberals educate their children in the manner they see fit, why are they not always eager to extend that same right to me when it conflicts with their agenda?

The fact is that a majority of parents in Texas disagree with Dr. Mason's friends at Texas Freedom Network and Planned Parenthood, who push sex as a recreational activity to be pursued with whomever, whenever teens in their infinite wisdom decide they are ready.

Some of us have observed that even as the rate of condom use among teens has risen as much as 40 percent, the rates of sexually transmitted diseases have continued to skyrocket. Comprehensive sex ed has ruled the educational roost for three decades, buoyed by the AIDS scare in the 1980s. Instead of a reduction in pregnancy or births, Texas saw a doubling of teen pregnancy rates. We have gone from the big three STDs when I was in high school - syphilis, gonorrhea and herpes - to 35 sexually transmitted diseases known to be prevalent.

Even the National Institutes of Health state that when it comes to many STDs, they can't say how effective - if at all - condoms are. Turns out that some STDs are spread from skin-to-skin contact, and condoms don't cover everything. That is the God's honest, loving truth our kids need to know.

In the early 1990s groups such as ours began offering abstinence education in schools and churches in response to the moral, social and economic chaos our teens experienced as a result of decades of these flawed, value-neutral sex programs. Immediately the pregnancy rate began dropping, and it has come down every year since. Last year Texas was one of three states to receive a $19.9 million award from the federal government for reducing out-of-wedlock births without increasing abortions.

All over the country, abstinence is making a comeback. Rolling Stone magazine even called it the "new revolution." Abstinence is the reason teen pregnancy and birth rates are coming down. Abstinence is the loving truth that will protect our kids.

Kyleen Wright is president of the Texans for Life Coalition. Her e-mail is kwright@texlife.org.

Scraps

and excerpts...that weren't used, but that I'm still moderately satisfied with. (haha, that was a re-write of 'but I'm still proud of')

Pro-Life Feminists: Think Twice Before You Call Us Oxymorons!

There has been a lot of controversy in the news lately over the idea of Pro-Life Feminism. To many people, this is a non sequitur. Not based in logic or reason, rather on societal stereotypes. Who’s ever known a feminist who’s not Pro-Choice?

Allow me to shed some light on the logic behind this growing movement and also let you in on a little secret: Women, have been utterly deceived by society’s version of women’s liberation and by our “right” to abortion. It’s a crock and here’s why...
As a mother, I can tell you the most courageous decision I ever made in my life was bringing my son into this world when I was only 17 years old. I was single, terrified, and oddly enough, up for the challenge. Through this profound blessing I was able to discover a strength inside of myself that I never knew I even possessed. Choosing abortion to me would have meant running away from a fact. I WAS A MOTHER NOW. Nothing was going to change that, abortion or otherwise. In my opinion it would have been cowardly to terminate my pregnancy and meant I was running away from it; the very opposite, I thought, of what a strong, capable woman would do in this situation. Through my experience, I became super woman; resilient, powerful, and able to take on anything the world handed me.

The suffrage movement (note that I did not say the 'feminist movement') began as a way to acquire equal rights for women, rights which we desperately needed to be an active, contributing part of society. Rights which we deserved; the right to vote; the right to fair wages. Years later the feminist movement came along, still following the same basic concept of gaining equality, but with a few new; very deceiving, very detrimental twist. One which replaced striving for equality with settling for equality. No women deserves abortions rights. This is not an prize, rather a punishment. What intelligent woman would honestly fight for her ‘right’ to perpetuate a violent crime against her God given super power? The one thing which makes her unique...and in my opinion, superior.

Women began to think that if they were chained down with the burden of motherhood then we would never be able to compete in this man's world. So, what is the solution you fiery, old school feminists? Simple. Eliminate the problem. All very logical.
Very masculinely formulated. Unfortunately, also incredibly short sided. After we've 'eliminated the problem(s),' however many might rear their ugly pink plus signs over our 40+ year careers, then what? We get a corporate job, a commemorative gold watch and tear filled retirement party? We'll sure...that's comparable....or not. Now, will this gold watch be able to eliminate the years of guilt and anguish that MANY women feel following the violence of abortion? Will it compensate for a lifetime lost to inexplicable anger rooted in these women's psyche from going against nature and aborting their unborn child(ren)? Will it unshackle those same chains of bondage that we were fighting so hard to escape from in the first place? I propose this, why settle for equality when we are designed to do something no man will ever be able to do?

Who’s the oxymoron now?

4 years ago.....

I was opening wedding shower gifts and assembling them while my family (at that time just Aiden and Abrahm) were fast asleep.

At 2am when I got the phone call about my brother I came rushing over, to the house that I know live in, to tell my dad. It's weird, I stood outside knocking and ringing the doorbell for what felt like 10 minutes. I kept calling their phone and no one would answer. Maybe it was just that night, but I remember it being eerily dark, and not wanting to stand out on the front porch a moment longer than I had to....

4 years later, things have really changed. My family is still fast asleep but now with two new additions, and one less.

Screw Equality.

Pro-Life Feminism.

I know many people hear this and think it's a blatant oxymoron. Perhaps; but humor me for a moment and allow me a chance to present my case on the subject.

The suffrage movement (note that I did not say 'feminist movement') began as a way to acquire equal rights for women; the right to vote; the right to fair wages. Now years later the feminist movement has come along, still following the same basic concept of gaining equality, but with a few new twist. A few very deceiving and detrimental twists, because this is where abortion rights come into play.

Women began to think that if they were chained down with the burden of motherhood they would never be able to compete in this man's world. In all fairness, men don't have to deal with 9 months of pregnancy, hormones, mood swings, morning sickness. Further more they don't have to take a leave of absents after delivery while they breast feed, nurture and rear the child. Obviously, this is 'THE Man's' way of maternally shackling us to the stove, right?

So, what is the solution you fiery feminists, we ask. Simple. Eliminate the problem.

All very logical. Very masculinely formulated. Unfortunately, also short sided.

After we've 'eliminated the problem(s),' however many might rear their ugly pink plus signs over our 40+ year career, then what?

We get a commemorative gold watch and tear filled 'you done good' retirement party? We'll sure...that's comparable....I suppose.

Now, will said gold watch be able to eliminate the years of guilt and anguish that MANY women feel following the act of abortion? Will it compensate for the lifetime lost to inexplicable anger rooted in these women's psyche from going against nature and terminating their unborn child(ren)? Will it unshackle those same chains of bondage that we were fighting so hard to escape from in the first place? Or are we just simple making the "choice" to pick which prison we'll spend our lives in bondage to?

I propose this, why settle for equality when we are designed to do something no man will ever be able to do? I say we stop worrying about glass ceilings, and demand they put us up on pedestals where we belong. Without our wombs not only will corporate America cease to exist but I'm pretty sure life on earth will as well.

It's time we stop striving for equality and start embracing our supremacy.

Doesn't anyone else find it a little odd that the feminist movement has us suppressing the one ability we have which makes us preeminent? Not very progressive.

Think of how we, as women, can change the world by create phenomenal beings, instilling in them amazing dreams and promises and then giving them their own chance to go out and change the world, all while creating more phenomenal beings, and so on and so on...it's a constantly growing ripple with endless potential and power...much more impressive than any watch, no matter how expensive.

I have a daughter...

Another daughter. Not that it makes a difference; but it does.

Now, if I say "Oh, my husband's at home with our daughter," I have to add to that sentence...'our youngest daughter...or oldest...or both', which ever will apply. I'm now the mother of a differential pair of daughters. This is substantial. Before I heard people say 'past two kid and it's all the same.' Simply untrue. Not that it is so much harder, but the fact is I want credit for the amount of flesh mass I've created on this earth; the square feet of carbon foot print that my labor and toil has granted this planet! Sure it may not be "green," but I should certainly get acknowledge for originating so much "tan." I mean, I've gestated a lot of tan...well... Eddie's more 'olive' but that's neither here nor there.

Either way, I made one heck of a good look'en baby.