The Source: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Last month we saw articles in every major newspaper about the new report that one in four teen girls has an STD. People were shocked. This week we're asking for your response and I'll be blogging about your comments on the subject all week. (So, if you haven't already... Subscribe to Jonathan's Blog HERE)

One in four teen girls has an STD. I have to admit... I wasn't surprised by this report in the slightest. What has surprised me in this highly sexualized culture is that we haven't seen this report sooner.

If you missed the report, here's a snippet from U.S. News:

More than 3 million teenaged girls have at least one sexually transmitted disease (STD), a new government study suggests.

The most severely affected are African-American teens. In fact, 48 percent of African-American teenaged girls have an STD, compared with 20 percent of white teenaged girls.

"These numbers translate into 3.2 million young women nationwide who are infected with an STD," Forhan said. "This means that far too many young women are at risk of the serious health effects of untreated STDs, including infertility and cervical cancer."

These common STDs include human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, herpes simplex virus and trichomoniasis, Forhan said.

So who is to blame?

It's probably not too difficult to guess who Planned Parenthood is blaming:

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the study shows that "the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."
Huffington Post, 3/11/2008

Let's hold off any analysis of abstinence education for a second... but we will be returning to the subject.

What about the influence of the media? Are they to blame? You might remember...

Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 8:00 AM
On THE SOURCE Podcast Episode #14, Furby and I talked about a retreat that Furby's church does for junior high students every year called the Relationships Retreat. It's a retreat where they talk about everything to do with sex and dating- a whole weekend on the subject.

In the podcast we discuss it and then we mention that we'll provide you with the rough outline of what subjects they talked on and any books and or websites they used for reference material. So here's the list, as promised...

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