~12:40am~ EST
CRITICS HALF RIGHT: I received a vociferous reaction to the column this week. Not far into it I made the statement:
"It was no secret that condom use in America under her husband's leadership was at an all time ... er ... high. A lot of things were: the flow of pornography, teen pregnancy, abortion and, yes, the use of, discussion of, demonstrations in public schools of ... condoms."
This was in reference to Hillary's statement's with a women's group in New York City as well as The Advocate magazine - in which she proudly stated that she wanted to hear more about condoms in the discussions with America's young people when it comes to sex today.
The fact that I included the topics of teen pregnancy (not births) and abortions in my list seemed to irritate really rabid fans of abortion. They did not challenge the porn statement as I'm sure many of them had to put down their magazines just to send me their heated hate mail.
They got on their blogs and had their readers barrage me with hate mail that all referred me back to one CDC report from this last year. You can read that report here.
Given the CDC's propensity to embrace the use of condoms and to discourage the inclusion of abstinence for years I blew off the fact that this was the source that the two blogs insisted upon. I believe the email from one reader was:
"Just wondering what fetid, mildew-encrusted hole you dig your 'research' out of. Keep up the ignorance and maybe we can get the abortion rate back up. Please give it up, you incompetent a$$."
(And that was one of the more tasteful ones.) But more to the point I thought I would show you some numbers directly.
First off let me point out that according to the CDC some decrease in reported teen BIRTHS and reported abortions did occur - but these were concentrated in the final two years of Clinton's presidency and in large part happened in correspondence with the beginning of the grassroots "abstinence" explosion that groups like Project Reality led the charge early on.
On reported Abortions - here were the raw averages of reported abortions performed in the calendar years...
1972-1980 - 940,000 on average
1981-1985 - 1,300,000 on average
1986-1990 - 1,300,000 on average
1991-1998 - 1,270,000 on average
1999-2000 - 850,000 on average
2001-2004 - raw data is not compiled yet
It should also be noted that the majority of the drop-off in the numbers of abortions between the 91-98 comparison and the 99-2000 was mostly among white women, which experienced significant drop offs. Averages amongst African American women showed a slight drop but stayed on average quite close to previous levels, and amongst Hispanic women - the drop off was nearly immeasurable.
The raw number averages demonstrate that for the majority of Clinton's term in office (6 of 8 years) the raw numbers of reported abortions still stood at well above 1 million per year. Admittedly the final two years showed a stark reduction in the raw reported numbers. Please note also that I did not imply that Clinton's years set NEW records - simply that the abortion occurrance was still what the CDC was referring to as "an endemic dilemma".
If you notice the CDC report uses percentages not raw numbers or averages. The CDC is also a federally funded wing of the government - they have an interest in not necessarily seeing problems resolved.
So similarly to the FDA not approving cancer drugs that other nations do - in order to keep the research coming in - even though they work, the CDC needs to justify an existence.
And the only time their existence is threatened is when Republicans are in power. (Democrats LOVE huge bureaucratic organizations that run circles around problems without ever solving them.)
Multiple news agencies but most notably a special report conducted by ABC News also pointed out that for certain "incentives" clinics regularly were encouraged to under-report the numbers of abortions they performed. Several clinics later even came under investigation for tax evasion and tax fraud for not reporting abortions done on a cash only basis. All this to say - numbers can be skewed.
All of this to get to the ultimate point of the column. Hillary wants to see more condoms in the hands of more teens. My point is - if we really love our teens - we let them know that condoms are not reliable, they are not safe, they do not protect you from STD's or even pregnancy - and even the AIDS virus is small enough to penetrate the microscopic openings in them.
On some level I must have made my point because the obsession over the passing sarcastic comment of what was "high" under Hillary's husband broke the spirit of those who believed in the Condom King.
-------------------------------------------------
(e-mail KMC,permalink,syndicate)
