We know politicians regularly use fear tactics to advance their agendas, but what about Hollywood? A new blatantly anti-choice horror film, The Life Zone, is emerging as the summer’s worst movie. This film engages young people in a disrespectful way. Rather than appealing to our intelligence or capacity for nuanced ethical thinking, it uses blind fear to scare young people into being anti-choice:

Here is the trailer for the film, which is premiering at film festivals now and will be released conveniently around the 2012 Presidential elections.



In the movie, an old white man presides over three young girls who have been kidnapped for committing a great sin: choosing to have an abortion. They are then kept in a dungeon for the remaining seven months and forced to give birth.

The movie is essentially a campaign piece, trying to scare young people into adopting an anti-choice political view. The filmmaker, Kenneth Del Vecchio, just so happens to be a Republican candidate for the New Jersey State Senate, and the film will be released some time in the next year in the heat of the presidential campaign season.

The condescending nature of this film really bothers me. Of course filmmakers should be allowed to put their personal beliefs into the movies they create, but here Vechio is engaging young people at a very low level. It also gives us a new understanding of the term anti-choice. While this film was made by a Republican in order to enroll young people in a socially conservative moral agenda, the film can almost be used as a perfect example of just what is wrong with anti-choice abortion policy. The teens being jailed and forced against their will to give birth to their children is exactly what being anti-choice is about: not trusting the judgment of women or young people. Unfortunately, the fictional plot line of young people being jailed and forced against their will has all too real meaning to actual people who live in countries where abortion is outlawed., Being put in jail or even being killed for seeking an abortion is not just the stuff of a ridiculous horror movie – for some, it is reality.

I hope that this film is a failure not only because it has an anti-choice message, but because it spreads this message in a crude and insulting way, has such obvious political motivations, and engages young people on a low level. Many young people, both those who fall on the anti-choice side and pro-choice side of the debate, are capable of thinking deeply about complex ethical issues, and deserve entertainment that reflects this fact. This movie doesn’t leave any room for the viewer to make up his or her mind, and instead holds the concept of abortion as sin as absolute truth -- as something to never be questioned.

I want to see a film that enrolls youth in a certain political agenda by appealing to our intelligence and ability to think past incomplete conceptions of right and wrong. Through using manipulative horror movie scenes and overt fear tactics, The Life Zone does just the opposite.

For more coverage by the ever sharp and hilarious Stephen Colbert, check out this segment from his show:

Nigerian sex traffickers lure young girls (ages 12-18) into sex slavery in Europe. There are over 100,000 Nigerians in the sex trade in Europe, mainly in Italy and England. Around 80% come from Edo, a southern state that is home to only three percent of Nigeria's population. It is the trafficking capital of Africa, and home of the traditional West African religion known as Juju. (Modern Ghanha)

While sex workers face struggles for power and rights when their work is voluntary, the struggles are even more heartbreaking when women are forced into the work. It is normal for trafficked women and girls to have sex with 10 or 12 men a day. They must work even when they feel ill, are on their period, or have been beaten and severely injured by their clients. Women involved in the sex trade have a very high risk of contracting HIV, and face stigmatization for their positive status upon returning home.

Why do girls end up in these tragic situations? Some suggest for purely economic reasons: they are promised a lot of money, and sometimes a girl’s family or even boyfriend or husband will encourage her to work in the sex trade in Europe for several years. They will expect her to return home with a large sum of money.

However, some reasons transcend the purely economic.

Nigerian traffickers often approach girls from families with little education and economic means, and promise her transportation to and work opportunities in Europe. And to make sure that she doesn’t bail on their plan once she realizes what she will be forced to do, they make her take an oath based on traditional “Juju” practices:

“The girl is taken to a shrine or a cemetery in the middle of the night, her finger nails are cut off, her pubic hair is shaved, a menstrual pad containing her blood is taken away, and then a piece of her clothing is removed," said Orakwue Arinze, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP)
"These are deposited in a shrine with wicked incantations that this girl should die and her family be wiped out in the event that she runs away or [exposes] these criminal practices," he added.” (BBC)

So how large scale is this horrific abuse of human rights? An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 women are trafficked into sex slavery from Nigeria each year. Worldwide, the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimates that every year two million people are trafficked against their will to work in some form of servitude. Annually, about 50,000 women and girls are trafficked into the United States alone. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that trafficking in human beings is a $5 to $7 billion industry worldwide (American University).

As the global community tries to find a solution, we must recognize that poverty and sex trafficking for hand in hand. In order to combat sex slavery, we need to combat global poverty aggressively.

"Trafficking is inextricably linked to poverty. Wherever privation and economic hardship prevail, there will be those destitute and desperate enough to enter into the fraudulent employment schemes that are the most common intake systems in the world of trafficking.” -USAID Office of Women in Development

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Last Tuesday, the newly elected ultra-conservative NC State House voted on a new budget bill. Included in this budget were many ideological attempts to bring about a new era of social conservatism in the state; among them was the elimination of state funding for Planned Parenthood.

Unfortunately, the budget bill passed the house and efforts to restore the Planned Parenthood funding failed. With a Republican controlled State Senate, it is a real possibility that Planned Parenthood will lose its state funding. This is a shame for many reasons, but one clear reason is economic: Every $1 spent on family planning saves taxpayers almost $4.00. Supporting organizations that work to prevent teen pregnancies is not just the right thing to do but also good business.

Planned Parenthood is one of the most effective and important health organizations in the state. Through education programs, political advocacy, and their health clinics, they are an invaluable resource to youth. With the real possibility of the elimination of state funding, young people and our allies should be worried.

This attack on Planned Parenthood mirrors a nationwide trend of eliminating funding for teen pregnancy prevention:

“In North Carolina, the proposed state budget includes a ban on state contracts with Planned Parenthood for teen pregnancy prevention and family planning. In Texas, the Republican-controlled House stripped more than $60 million from the state budget for family planning services, shifting some of the money to anti-abortion programs and crisis pregnancy centers. Last year, New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, cut $7.5 million from the state budget for 58 clinics specializing in women's reproductive health.” (News and Observer)

However, there are some excellent legislators who made a bold stand last week trying to protect the funding. Check out some excerpts from the debate on the floor:



The North Carolina Planned Parenthood has created a web center to learn more about the budget proposals and the site includes ways to get involved.

The past week has been an exciting time for me: college decisions were released! Having gotten into several of my top choice schools (Duke, Tufts, GW) I can stop worrying about the college admission process and start getting excited about going to college next year.

My excitement for the beginning of college, and the anticipation of expansive, fun, life changing experiences is tampered by the fact that sexual assault and rape on college campuses is all to prevalent. At least 1 in 4 college-age women will be victims of sexual assault, and while the rates are lower men can be victims as well.

To me, thinking about college next year, 1 in 4 is a staggering number. What does this say about the respect young people have for each other on campus? I want college to be a profoundly empowering experience, both for myself and for my peers. The disempowerment that can accompany sexual assault is heartbreaking.

The NPR news investigation, Seeking Justice For Campus Rapes, found some startling findings. Among them, they found “that colleges almost never expel men who are found responsible for sexual assault and that often, as a result, it is the victim who drops out of school.”

Check out the full report:





Today, the Obama administration is calling on colleges and universities to take concrete steps to address sexual assault on campus:

— Schools should use a "preponderance of evidence" standard to determine whether another student is responsible for an assault. That means that if it's more than likely that sexual violence occurred, there should be punishment. Some schools have used a much higher standard, including the "clear and convincing evidence" standard used in criminal court proceedings.

— When a woman brings a complaint that she was a victim of assault, a school cannot punish her for using alcohol or drugs. Some women have complained that when they went to school administrators to say they'd been sexually assaulted, they ended up getting punished for breaking school rules on drinking or using drugs.

— Even if a student is said to have assaulted another student in off-campus housing, the school must investigate.

— Schools must investigate in a timely manner. Some schools told women they could not get involved until after local police completed a criminal investigation. That often left a woman on campus — and even in the same dormitory or classrooms — with the man she said had assaulted her.

— The guidelines apply to public high schools, middle schools, and even elementary schools. Federal officials say they are concerned by growing complaints of sexual violence, especially in high schools and middle schools.
(NPR)

I am eager to see all colleges and universities implement these practices, and soon. Over the next four years of my college experience, I am sure I will have many challenges. Experiencing the horrors of rape and sexual violence either first hand, or comforting a friend who has been assaulted, should not be one of them.

Imagine this scenario: a girl, under the age of 18, is being repeatedly raped by her stepfather. She has no one in her family or friend group to turn to. The stepfather is well liked, and the girl thinks that no one would believe her if she spoke up. Then imagine that the girl tried to go to a rape crises center, and even a doctor, to get help and STD/pregnancy testing.

If a new Senate Republican-supported provision in a state omnibus bill passes in Minnesota, young women in situations like the above would be forced to acquire parental consent in order to get treatment and help. Such a law would hurt young people beyond measure.

Unfortunately, the above story about the victimized minor is true: it was part of a testimony delivered by Dr. Ann Edwards on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics in opposition to the attempted repeal of minor consent laws. The Academy was joined by the Minnesota Department of Health, the Mayo Clinic, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a number of teen pregnancy prevention groups, which all testified about the cruelty and gross deficiencies of this Senate Republican proposal (source: Minnesota Independent.)

Minor consent laws are critical to young people’s health. We need to be able to go to the doctor’s office and know that a) we will have access to proper treatment, care, and counseling and b) the doctor is required by law to protect our confidentiality, even if we are under the age of 18. Too often, young people just don’t get help because there are no trusted resources available to them. What’s more, Planned Parenthood and many school-based health centers (two of the most important resources for youth) are facing drastic cuts thanks to the GOP’s current and shameless war on women and young people. Now is a more important time than ever to protect minor consent provisions.

Currently, most states allow minors to access some mental and physical health services without parental consent (while preserving confidentiality). When it comes to birth control, abortion, and STD testing, though, minors’ consent is too often seen as non-binding.

Ultimately, this issue isn’t just about Minnesota. With socially conservative state legislatures in place all over the country, reproductive health and freedom advocates are concerned that minor consent laws will come under repeated threat. But we can’t back down in the face of this ideological assault on our rights. In a world where 1 in 3 American teens will become pregnant, and where 10,000 teens catch an STD EACH DAY, youth must always be able to access the health care and services they need -- and feel empowered and supported in doing so.

Yesterday news broke that Ke$ha has landed a deal to have her face put on 10-15k condoms, which she will distribute for free at her concerts. While some criticize her for her party girl image, Ke$ha also has a responsible side. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation with 750,000 teen girls becoming pregnant every year. Condoms will be shot out of cannons at gigs on her upcoming tour, a robust and creative strategy for promoting safe sex. When a famous pop star with a massive fan base of young people sends the message that condoms are not only important but cool by putting her face on them, she is doing much to counter beliefs that condoms are uncomfortable, not necessary, etc. In fact, I can imagine that receiving a custom condom at a Ke$ha concert would help some young people currently not practicing safe sex begin to do so.

To show appreciation for her promotion of safe sex, some friends and I created a video to her latest song, "Blow." Please check it out, we spend a lot of time on it and hope it is entertaining!



With such high teen pregnancy rates in the US, people from all domains of society - the media, schools, musicians, politicians, even religious leaders- need to find creative solutions for promoting safe sex. Kudos to Ke$ha for doing just that.

Brigham Young University basketball starting player Brandon Davies committed a terrible offense: pre-marital sex with his girlfriend. BYU's honor code forbids students from having premarital sex and instructs them to "live a chaste and virtuous life." This move by the university this highlights the negative attitude towards sexuality harbored by many conservative religious traditions, especially Mormonism. At a university so conservative on their views about sex, I am concerned about the student’s sexual health and safety. Surely at a University that does not “allow” pre-marital sex, students still are in need of sexual health services. Doesn't a university that prides itself on being a moral institution have a moral obligation to the health and well being of its students?

*Update* Jon Stewart covered this on his show last night, very funny :)
(last half of the video clip:)



There is the opinion that a Mormon university can do whatever it likes, and it’s none of our business. Davies signed a contract saying he wouldn’t have pre-marital sex, he did, so it would follow that the appropriate response is to kick him off the team. CFS Sports columnist Ray Rattor says,

The honor code might be archaic, but it's archaic to you. It works for other folks. You don't like it, go somewhere else.
And so it is Mormonism as well. It might not be your cut of meat, but it doesn't have to be. If you find its capacity for forgiveness to be insufficient for your needs, desires or opinions, then find the church that works for you.

Point well taken. Tolerance, even for things we find archaic and personally distasteful, is still very important. However, I simply can’t get in line with the honor code’s prohibition on sexual activity. Let’s put aside the argument that being “virtuous” by abstaining from sex is an ideological method of control over the others, especially women, and that in fact there is nothing inherently virtuous about abstaining versus being sexually active. Also, let’s set aside BYU’s other crazy honor code rules. It not only prohibits premarital sex but also plagiarism, alcohol, and visiting opposite-sex dorms too late at night as well as "sleeveless, strapless, backless, or revealing" clothing for women; coffee; tea; and beards.

Regardless of all this, while the school has a right to enforce rules that stem from the Mormon tradition, they also have a responsibility to their students. If they are suspending a player for pre-marital sex, it is not a large leap to say that there is a dearth of sexual health services available to students. And this case clearly shows that while the school doesn't want to admit it, even Mormon students are having sex. People of any faith have a right to accesses contraception, confidential testing, and accurate health advice. Slate reports, “A 1954 internal study (cited in a 1985 book about the university) estimated that 14 percent of students had sex before marriage.” However, I wouldn’t be surprised if that number was a lot higher. Plus, sexual assault surely is not unheard of on BYU’s campus.

In Utah, STD rates (particularly for Chlamydia) are painfully high. Sexually active youth in the state face enormous difficulties getting the health information and services they need. Schools are required to stress abstinence in sex ed classes, Utah continues to accept federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funding, and there are fewer than 20 Title X family planning clinics in the entire state.

Ultimately, this negative attitude towards sexuality –- an external force to be grappled with as opposed to a healthy and natural part of being human—is not good for students.  While I respect BYU’s right to create whatever rules they want, I believe that their stance on this issue leads to unhealthy sexual behavior, as well as high unplanned pregnancy rates and STD rates. At a religious university that prides itself on being moral, they have a duty to protect the sexual health of their students.

Washington University of St. Louis hosts an annual Sex Week, to “start an open sexual dialogue, encourage students to experiment with sexual viewpoints that differ from their own and to provide wide-reaching sexual education.”

Originally, they chose Bristol Palin to be the keynote speaker for the event. Wash U was going to pay her $20,000 to speak about sexual responsibility. After having a baby in 2008, teen mom Bristol Palin embarked on an ironic campaign to advocate for (obviously) ineffective abstinence-only sex education.  Students at the university did not think she was qualified to speak to them about sexual responsibility; they mounted protests and gathered petition signatures to have her dropped from the event. At a meeting last week discussing whether to keep Bristol Palin at the event, students packed the room in protest, and a college freshmen held up a sign saying: "Can I get paid for an accident too?"  

Kate Walsh, star of “Private Practice,” Tweeted about the issue:

“Welcome to the Idiocracy! RT @elliekirsh: @katewalsh please join students at Wash.U. to boycott Bristol Palin's speech on abstinence. What does she know about college or abstaining?”

Wash U is right in dropping Palin from the event, but not for the reasons mentioned above. Age is not a disqualification, and neither is the fact that she didn’t attend college. It is not her experiences that disqualify her, but her political and moral positions. I know several teen moms who are fantastic advocates for sexual responsibility.  One girl I know became pregnant in high school after receiving a lifetime of abstinence-only education from both the classroom and the Church. Shockingly, she was taken by the moment after meeting a guy, and they had unprotected sex.  She is now in college and raising a beautiful baby, but her message is not a hypocritical one of condoning sexuality. Rather, she now advocates for education programs that give teens complete information to make informed sexual health choices. She realizes that if she had learned that it was OK to insist on using protection, she wouldn’t have gotten pregnant. And she uses this story to make sure other young people are able to make more informed choices.

It is Bristol Palin’s stance on what form of sex education students should receive that makes her a poor choice for this event. She advocates for abstinence, and abstinence-only education, following far right social ideology, when she could be a fantastic advocate urging students to use birth control. Instead of realizing that the programs she supports DO NOT WORK, she blindly insists that abstinence (only) is the way to go. A speaker bent on restricting information should not be paid $20,000 to speak at an event aimed at fostering an open dialogue.

Kudos for students organizing around this issue, and for making sure Bristol Palin’s message would not be featured at this event. And Bristol, there is still time to reconsider your position and become a powerful advocate for comprehensive sex education.

Dan Jubelirer is a Netroots Fellow at Amplify, a youth-driven community dedicated to promoting sexual health and reproductive justice.

Teen Health Now and the Adolescent Teen Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina are hosting the inangural 2011 Sex Ed Film Festival.  Our event was covered in Time Magazine Online! Check it out:

Film festivals, once an elite institution dominated by cineastes, insiders and glamorous cities like Cannes and Venice, have become a growth industry. Teensy towns now have them, as do islands — from Nantucket to Staten Island. These festivals have also become more specialized, both by genre and age; one of the most robust new trends is film festivals for kids. So it's perhaps not surprising that somebody has now put together a Sex Ed Film Festival. (More on TIME.com: What One Study Reveals About Teens' Risky Sex Lives)

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) is organizing the event, which is either a pretty shrewd way of reaching kids who think they're too sophisticated to watch after-school specials, or the weirdest cult-movie gathering ever.

Scheduled for Feb. 19 in Chapel Hill, the festival will show Saved, the Macauley Culkin, Jena Malone, Mandy Moore teen satire, and two documentaries. (Among the latter is The Gloucester 18, which was sparked by a controversial TIME Magazine story about a "pregnancy pact" at a Massachusetts high school.)

While overall pregnancy rates have been dropping among teens, the U.S. still has the highest rate of teen pregnancy of any country that produces reliable counts. The problem tends to be concentrated in poorer areas, where girls possibly have less optimism about their future. The Internet lit up this week with reports of a school in Memphis whose student body included 90 girls who had given birth or were pregnant in the last year. (More on TIME.com: 5 Little-Known Truths About American Sex Lives)

North Carolina has the 14th highest rate of teen pregnancy in the U.S. but it is headed in the right direction, falling 4.4% last year. Rural counties are more affected than urban ones, and the rate is highest among Hispanic students. While a film festival is unlikely to be a cure-all, it might be a safe way to spark some valuable discussion.

In fact, the organizers hope to inspire would-be activists more than at-risk teen moms. "We are really hoping to use the event as a way to inspire young people and their parents to get involved in advocating for effective education and access to sexual health services," says the APPCNC's Elizabeth Finley. "We think youth can be some of our strongest advocates for those things, and that the film festival is a great way to education them and inspire them to act."

Live in North Carolina? We hope you can join us.  Get your tickets here before they run out!

The next day, we are hosting a day long training for young people and youth serving professionals.  The training is FREE, and we will be covering adolescent health issues and public policy, as well as advocacy strategies and messaging strategies.  More details here.

Today, January 22^nd,  is the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, which legalized abortion in the United States. Today we have a lot to be thankful for, and we also have to brace for a tough fight ahead. Republican control of many state legislatures means we could see the most anti-choice legislation passed in decades. 

Looking at the current state of abortion laws all over the world, there is a lot to be thankful for in living in the United States. The Roe V. Wade decision has done so much to protect safe, legal abortion in the United States, helping protect the lives of countless women.  I am thankful that I live in a country where a majority of women have access to safe, confidential, legal abortion services.  I am also thankful that abortion rights have become an issue men are involved with as well. It takes two people to bring a child into the world, and men should also be concerned with government intrusion on a women’s right to choose. I know that if I am in a situation where I get a girl pregnant, since I am not yet ready to be a father, she will have the option to choose an abortion, and that this choice will not involve her risking her life.

There is a tough fight ahead. A result of the mid-term elections, more states than ever have anti-choice majorities. 29 governors are now considered to be solidly anti-abortion, compared with 21 last year.  In 15 states, compared with 10 last year, both the legislature and the governor are anti-abortion. 



“This is worrisome because the governors have been the firewall, they’ve vetoed a lot of bad anti-choice legislation,” said Ted Miller, a spokesman for Naral Pro-Choice America. (NYT)
 
The New York Times reports that anti-choice lawmakers are focused on the folliwng issues:

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