Dan Savage and Amy Richards on Abstinence-Only Sex Education

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/04/08/Amy_Richards_and_Dan_Savage_in_Conversation

Advice columnists Dan Savage and Amy Richards argue that abstinence-only sex education does not adequately instruct teens on the realities of sexual health. This program contains sexually explicit language.

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In the July 18th, 2004 issue of The New York Times Magazine, feminist activist Amy Richards gave her account of deciding to undergo "selective reduction." The procedure reduces the number of fetuses carried by a pregnant woman - in Richards' case, from triplets to one baby.

Her controversial choice reignited debates about reproductive freedom and the ethics of choice. Richards recounts the backlash of the article and the many challenges of raising her son in Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself. Richards is co-founder of The Third Wave Foundation and has written feminist.com's advice column "Ask Amy" since 1995.

Internationally-syndicated columnist Dan Savage dispenses with taboos when writing about sex and relationships. Since 1991, his column "Savage Love" has offered advice that examines and dispels conservative models of love, sex, and family.

With great humor, Savage encourages a "good, giving, and game" approach to safe sexual experimentation and skepticism of "simplistic" views of monogamy. Dan Savage is also a contributor to "This American Life" and editorial director of The Stranger, the Seattle weekly that first published his popular column.

His book The Kid relates Savage's experiences adopting a baby boy with his partner. The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family, his memoir of family, includes Savage's commentary on the gay marriage debate - City Arts and Lectures

Daniel Savage is an American sex advice columnist, author, media pundit, journalist, and newspaper editor. Savage is best known for penning the internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column Savage Love. Its tone is humorous, profane, and often hostile to social conservatives, as in the Santorum controversy.

Savage has often been the subject of controversy regarding his opinions that pointedly clash with both traditional conservative moral values and those put forth by what Savage has been known to call the "gay establishment".

Amy Richards is co-founder of The Third Wave Foundation and has written feminist.com's advice column "Ask Amy" since 1995.

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[sociopathpsych]

i'm a psychology major. tell kids how stds work and how sex works. ENCOURAGE abstinence for kids, but don't make it seem like the only option. when I took sex ed i knew my stuff, sorta. I knew you could get preggo your first time and you can get stds your first time. condoms are 98% effective. I turned out just fine and am preparing to get my master's.

[whotrickedyou]

Read my comments, in the view all comments. Also, hear Jason's talk to teens "Romance without regrets" from my link. There Jason makes an excellent presentation proving what we already know in our hearts (but won't admit) that abstinence does work. I'm in my 15th year and NO Hiv, Aids, Costly Child support that cuts your check to 99.80 a week. Abstinence works and the girls are signing up, so guys are fighting it, lol.

[MrAliGate]

Also, look at the stats. Sweden changed its sex education policy in 1975. absistence and sex within marriage recommendations were dropped in favour of contraception education and a naionwide network of youth clinics. Over the next two decades... sweden saw its teenage birthrate fall by 80%. What does that tell you...its not about practising absistence...its about getting the knowledge to have safer sex

[MrAliGate]

Problem: teenage pregnancy and venereal disease...solution...absistenc­e except within marriage OR sex education and safe sex. Well to the absistence campaigners all i can say is...the majority of people who practice absistence tend to end up having sex at some point, but they are less likely to use contraceptives as they are not prepared for an experience they had promised to forego

[JAB63096]

abstinence only sex education = just hold it potty training

[thatdutchguy420]

be realistic just teach kids that sex can lead to kids and if they are ready to have sex wear a rubber until your ready to have a kid

[dragonsder]

@ComradeSephiroth

My problem with abstinence education is that it does more to prevent condom use than it does to prevent sex, which is why when the system was implemented in Texas it caused the state to have the 46th worst teen pregnancy rate in the country.

[S1lentStr1ke]

Double You Teh Eff?

[QueenAnime99]

@frenchfriedfrenchmen I'm using the definition of asexuality that has to do with human sexuality. Perhaps I should have explained myself better (I usually do but I ran out of space).

[QueenAnime99]

@frenchfriedfrenchmen Please see the site that I posted because it's specifically about asexuality. Asexuality and celibacy are not the same thing. Some asexuals, for example, aren't celibate, while some celibates, for example, aren't asexual. That's why I mentioned that I am both asexual & celibate b/c the two things aren't mutually exclusive. I know about the other asexuality & I see what you are saying, but people shouldn't assume & should ask questions first. Good day.

[frenchfriedfrenchmen]

@QueenAnime99 alright,i looked it up,and i found that some people use asexual to describe celibacy,but you must understand that asexual is also a form a reproduction that humans cannot take part in(budding,regeneration,ect).a­lso,if you say to synonyms in the same sentence but one has a secondary meaning,people will assume the more known definition.