When it comes to sex, one would think that Bill O’Reilly would not attempt to take the moral high ground. With his checkered past of being sued for sexual harassment and the recent heat he’s taken for blaming young victims of sexual violence, Bill O’Reilly does not exactly come off as the most credible person in the world on this subject.
But hypocrisy is no stranger to O’Reilly, as he chose to give a softball interview to Elayne Bennett from the D.C. abstinence-only group Best Friends, in order to show the “success” of abstinence-only education.
What set O’Reilly off was a column in Newsweek on abstinence-only funding by Anna Quindlin, who he referred to as “a big pro-abortion woman”. O’Reilly claimed that he "invited" Quindlin on the show to defend her column and that she declined.
In O’Reilly’s softball interview with Bennett, he gave her a platform to dispense a handful of false talking points.
O'REILLY: But how is this set up? How is your abstinence teaching set up? In D.C. the pregnancy rate for girls age 15 to 19 has fallen by more than 50 percent from 1991 to 2006, right?BENNETT: That's wonderful. It's a wonderful success story.O'REILLY: OK. And you attribute that to what?BENNETT: I have to attribute it to the advent of abstinence education.
Really? Considering the fact that D.C. public and charter schools are required to teach a more comprehensive sex education and only a small percentage were in Bennett’s program, this might be a bit of a stretch in logic, no?
But let’s try looking at the time period in which Bennett’s Best Friends received $3 million in federal CBAE funding, from 2004-2007, shall we? Has this increase in funding for abstinence-only education in D.C. produced results? Yes it has, and not the good kind. As Newshounds pointed out, among the 15-24 age group in D.C. from 2003 to 2007, Syphilis cases went up 233%, and Chlamydia cases went up 94%.
Does Bennett take credit for that? Not that O’Reilly brought that up, of course. Nor did he mention the definitive independent Mathematica study of 2007 that showed abstinence-only programs do not delay sexual activity among teens or other studies that have shown that students who receive this “education” are less likely to use contraception.
O’Reilly also let Bennett present her organization as a beacon of success, as she claimed that “only 10% of our students in DC public schools are sexually active”. Well, let’s take a look at Best Friends and how this “10%” number is a gross distortion.
Young people choose to be in Best Friends. They are not randomly selected to participate. Those young people that do self select to join an abstinence group are clearly more inclined to be abstinent than those who don’t. If you decide to join an abstinence group, guess what? You’re more into abstinence than your fellow students. Just like those who decide to join the school football team are likely to be stronger or better at football than those who don’t.
Also, Best Friends conveniently doesn’t count the students who drop out of the program after becoming pregnant, or are kicked out after their fellow students tell Best Friends’ leadership that they are having sex. These two factors, which O’Reilly of course wasn’t going to mention, make the “10%” number virtually meaningless.
O’Reilly then shifted the conversation to those who want comprehensive sex education, asking the most loaded question ever: “Why would they want — why would they want kids to have sex? Why? What's the upside of that for them?”
Bennett: You know what the liberal elites are all about. They don't really want to provide choice. They're not interested in supporting the 51 percent of students who are not sexually active. They have a mindset that, well, it's unrealistic.
Of course, Bennett’s talking point that comp sex ed is against choice and assumes that all kids will have sex is completely false. Comprehensive sex education programs teach both the benefits of refraining from sex, as well as the information they would need if they do become sexually active. Many have been proven more effective at helping young people delay sex than failed abstinence-only programs. We respect the intelligence of young people by giving them all of the information they need to protect themselves.
O’Reilly ended the interview with the real kicker, revealing that he has been associated with Bennett’s group for years (hence the kid gloves approach with her, as I’m sure Quindlen would not have received).
In the end, Bennett commended O’Reilly for his work and claimed that “our students have great admiration for you, Bill.” One needs to question just what it is that they admire. Is it the fact that O’Reilly has been accused of sexual harassment? That he used his show to blame a young woman for her own rape and murder (it was her miniskirt!)? Or maybe that he sent his producer to stalk a young female blogger who had dared to criticize him?
Surely, Mr. O’Reilly is an odd choice for Ms. Bennett to peddle as a role model for these young women.
(ALSO- Best Friends just received another CBAE grant for the next 6 years which will total over $3 million dollars. Be sure to contact President Obama, who is finalizing his first budget, and tell him that we need to cut the funding of these ineffective abstinence-only programs. Also tell your Congressional representatives!)
(ALSO- Best Friends just received another CBAE grant for the next 6 years which will total over $3 million dollars. Be sure to contact President Obama, who is finalizing his first budget, and tell him that we need to cut the funding of these ineffective abstinence-only programs. Also tell your Congressional representatives!)
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Comprehensive sex ed is about teaching kids what they need to know about their bodies, how they work, and how to control what happens to them.
Nobody wants kids to have sex. But the reality is many of them ARE having sex, probably because we've made it an enticing taboo.
Even if they all wait until their 18th birthday to have sex, the fact of the matter is pretty much every high school student will have sex AT SOME POINT in his or her life, whether while still a high school student or after graduation. if we do not give them this vital information during their mandatory education, when are they supposed to get it?