NARAL: The Finer Points of Vulgarity
By Jane Jimenez (07/19/05)
You’ve got to hand it to NARAL. They really know how to get their point across.
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington wants to make it clear. No ambiguous, vague, uncertain, unintelligible, nebulous, amphibological message from NARAL. Absolutely none!
Do you want to know what the leading proponent of abortion thinks about healthy sexual behavior? NARAL wants everyone to know! Screw Abstinence.
Just to make sure you don’t miss it, they scream at the top of their voices. Throw your hands up and say it loud: “Screw Abstinence!!!” They tell us at the bottom of their e-mail flyer to let everyone know: Print Out Flyer & Help Promote Screw Abstinence.
This is not just political rhetoric and subtle behind-the-scenes lobbying. They are throwing a party. They are raising money. And there is something for everyone at NARAL’s funfest:
* A sex ed class for adults performed by Seattle theatre’s hottest sketch comedy group
* Tips on Sexy Sex by Sex-positive purveyors of adult toys
* A Screw Driver drink ticket
* A Screw Abstinence T-Shirt
If there is anything good that comes from vulgarity in your face and over the top, this must be it. We now know for sure and without a doubt, what NARAL values and elevates as their ultimate ideal for healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors.
For the past thirty years parents and health experts have agonized over the high rates of unwed teen pregnancy and the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Untold hours have been spent debating how to best educate young people on healthy choices related to sex.
Abstinence…purity…chastity…modesty…concepts of self-control and restraint have made a comeback. But it has been a hard fought battle. At every turn, there are opponents to abstinence. Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and NARAL have worked hard to convince us abstinence education won’t work.
Now, thanks to NARAL, we know one of the major reasons abstinence education struggles. It is mocked and ridiculed and rejected by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
The finer points of NARAL’s Screw Abstinence party are these.
They trivialize the very essence of healthy choices based on self-restraint and the medical realities of sexual behavior.
They flaunt the outdated term “Safe Sex,” mutating it into “Safer Sex” without one shred of proof that sex toys are harmless games in the hands of promiscuous people. Safer sex? Safer than what?
They model for adults over the age of 21 the foundations of mindless, medically illiterate objections to abstinence education. NARAL doesn’t need a reason to object. It’s enough to “Come, laugh, learn, socialize and buck the system at NARAL Pro-Choice Washington’s Screw Abstinence Party.”
And perhaps the finest point of all in NARAL’s attack on the healthy attitudes toward sex by America’s young people is this. When over twenty percent of children relying on the promises of “safer sex” get pregnant this year, NARAL will be there with Planned Parenthood and the ACLU to defend their right to sneak to the nearest abortion clinic without parental consent.
If abstinence education is challenged in its efforts to educate young people about healthy sexual attitudes and behaviors, we finally have the answer…in our faces…over the top…and without a doubt. Thanks to NARAL.
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