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Mississippi's 'Personhood' Law Could Outlaw Birth Control


Shoobydoo

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In my junior high, we had decent, non-judgmental sex ed. Actually, it started in 4th grade. In high school, health class was part of our Phys Ed. That said, if there was anywhere to get free condoms, I'm not aware of it. But it was a small town; not sure how they'd do that so it could be anonymous.

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Sex ed is a required in grade 12 Biology and probably the mainstream all around science class. If you're in a religious school then the sex ed part of the life management course everyone is required to take is omitted. Religious schools cannot get around the sex ed part of biology whatsoever unless the student decides to not take biology but takes something like physics or chem. Since we have standardized exams all over the entire province for the main grade 12 subjects, you have to actually know what birth control methods are out there, how ovulation occurs and so on. Otherwise you're not going to do so well on the exam and it's 50% of your overall grade!

I imagine if the school isn't accredited and can't offer an actual high school diploma they could get away with it but the government has made it mandatory just in case. Grade 12 is really late to be learning about it though.

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Sex ed is a required in grade 12 Biology and probably the mainstream all around science class. If you're in a religious school then the sex ed part of the life management course everyone is required to take is omitted. Religious schools cannot get around the sex ed part of biology whatsoever unless the student decides to not take biology but takes something like physics or chem. Since we have standardized exams all over the entire province for the main grade 12 subjects, you have to actually know what birth control methods are out there, how ovulation occurs and so on. Otherwise you're not going to do so well on the exam and it's 50% of your overall grade!

I imagine if the school isn't accredited and can't offer an actual high school diploma they could get away with it but the government has made it mandatory just in case. Grade 12 is really late to be learning about it though.

Maul the Koala, you're in Alberta, too, aren't you? Didn't you have to take sex ed as part of gym class in high school? I can't remember what they called it in junior high. I don't remember much about sex ed being on any of my finals, although I didn't take Biology after grade 11. I didn't take gym after grade 10, either...so if they got more in depth, I would have missed it. But I learned about how ovulation occurs and stuff WAY before grade 12!

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Fundie translator: stop proving me wrong! omg you guys are so mean!

128707492361584392.jpg&sa=X&ei=M128Tsi6KumMiAKB9t3zAg&ved=0CAsQ8wc4zAE&usg=AFQjCNHFKiI6rfmBZfMtRVPI19O98gySVw

I love you, Emmie. :D There are other reasons, but unexpected!Keith is always a joy.

As for the car metaphor--I love used cars, both literally and metaphorically. Sex with one-away-from-virgin boy? Terrible. Sex with darling man 26 years my senior? Brilliant. Also, my 1999 Forester drives like a dream. She just needs a bit of TLC now and then.

I wish I could recall sex ed in my high school, but the truth is I kind of dozed through it. By 16, I knew about the kinky shit AND the biology. You collect enough textbooks and read enough fanfiction, you'll figure this stuff out. :)

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Lainey, I was in Catholic school so no. We only got the sex ed part in Bio 30. I know my friends who were in regular (aka no religion) got the education in CALM, the career and life management classes. I managed to miss out on all the sex ed for the years I wasn't in Catholic school for many reasons. I spent time in a program that had the parents sign a waiver saying sex ed was up to the parents. I ended up with a grand total of one class of sex ed before grade 12. That was with a teacher who didn't believe in pre-marital sex. Was a male. Said childbirth and raising children wasn't all that bad, therefore abortion was bad. I wish I still had the handouts. He gave us one handout that was priceless. It showed a man who had slept with two women, then all the men those women had slept with, and then all the women those men slept with. And so on. Then we were supposed to visualize that man having AIDS and spreading it around because he was having pre-marital sex. If you didn't have pre-marital sex, then you can't spread AIDS.

I transfered out of that school afterwards and the next year they cracked down on the teachers promoting their own beliefs because surprise, surprise kids were having sex. One of the girls in my grade had some sort of pregnancy scare. I can't remember if it was a scare or she was pregnant and ended up miscarrying. Anyway after that debacle with teachers refusing to teach about birth control they immediately implemented actual sex education. It was pretty apparent there were 12 and 13 year olds in the school having sex and it took one of the 13 year olds having a pregnancy scare that made them take actual action.

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Huh. I was in Catholic school in Lethbridge for grade 10 and half of grade 11. I guess that's why I don't remember any sex ed in CALM. Or in that school at all, come to think of it. I know at least when I was in junior high, my mom did have to sign a waiver for me to take sex ed, but basically everyone took it but the JWs. Good thing I learned all about it before I went to Lethbridge. :mrgreen: Although in spite of my book learnin' on the subject, I still worried when I was 14 that I could get pregnant just from being incredibly turned on by a guy I liked. :oops: I knew it wasn't supposed to be possible, but I still didn't trust that information.

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I think the whole country is abstinence only right now. My son has received zero sex ed, not even a goddamned health class. I had to take a full quarter of it my freshman year.

eta: I mean at school. Obviously I have educated him about these things.

No way - it hasn't been THAT long since I graduated (in 2005) and I had super-thorough sex ed in my public school and I know the program is pretty much the same in that district and surrounding ones. Abstinence was mentioned as an option but we had probably five or six years of big units on sex ed in our health classes. Meaning we spent at least one quarter of every year on various sex ed topics. We learned about all different kinds of birth control - from barrier methods to hormonal methods to IUDs, including how the morning after pill works - the positives and negatives about each (including the classic banana/condom demonstration), all about different types of STDs (with graphic pictures, yay!) and of course about the biological aspects of pregnancy. My graduating class was about 485 people and only one girl had a baby before graduating and I can think of two abortions that I knew about.

I was in the NYC area, though, in a district where the prominent religions were non-practicing, lapsed Catholics and Reform Jews. There are still areas that are reasonable about this!

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Pro-lifers love to marginalize women, because of the "protection of the unborn babies." Yet, they forget, even some of the female fetuses who were "rescued" will grow into adult women, and some will also have abortions.

So, who are those precious fetuses, which pro-lifers cried and prayed for in front of those "ebil" clinics? At least a third are women, many who will have an abortion. (2nd generation innocent fetuses.) Is the original unwanted pregnancy still a miracle of "God's Grace?"

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Personhood USA are not done yet...

Despite not succeeding in the passage of Mississippi's Personhood Amendment, Personhood USA - the organization spearheading the personhood movement - is likely celebrating as well. They did better in Mississippi than they've done previously anywhere else.
:o

Personhood USA is, "currently gathering signatures to put similar measures on the ballot in Montana, Florida and Oregon. Personhood advocates have filed personhood language measures in Ohio, Nevada and California, and lawmakers have initiated or soon plan to initiate equivalent legislation in Alabama, Wisconsin and Michigan. Voters defeated a personhood measure twice in Colorado - the only state besides Mississippi that has gathered enough signatures to force a vote."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1111/S ... ssippi.htm

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Effie,

I think they are reading into to Mississippi too much. Of course they did well. They only have one abortion provider in the state and that provider flies into Jackson from another state to do it.

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Personhood USA are not done yet...

:o

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1111/S ... ssippi.htm

I am somewhat heartened, although no less vigilant, that Mississippi voted it down. I mean no offense to Mississippians, but if they couldn't get this to fly in MS, a very conservative state, I don't know where they'll be able to get it to pass. And although that may not seem like a big win, that many percentage points is actually a pretty solid win.

What actually does scare me is that they will eventually figure out that the bill is just too overreaching. It's a bridge too far, even for so called "pro-lifers" to vote to potentially outlaw IVF and criminalize miscarriage. Even a fundie-lite woman will think about her own miscarriage (which are quite common among all groups of women) and think twice. Then they will dial it back just far enough to make it palatable to these folks, and then it will become an issue again.

Their chip-away approach has worked beautifully - for them. They got too arrogant and misled themselves about how many people share their extremist views.

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Hmmmmm with the car metaphor..... so if a car is like a vagina, why do sooooo many men get off on Classics that are 40+ years old, hey?

We are an abstinence-based sex education curriculum here in WI.... which means abstinence is stressed as the only 100% way to ensure you will not get an STD or pregnancy etc yadda yadda. But in 7th grade they do cover the forms of birth control as well as touch on gender identity, homosexuality, etc.

Half my family is gay so my kids have never even thought it weird, it's been sad to watch my kids hit the realization that to some people still it's an abomination.

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The school district where I work teaches Human Sexuality in 7th and 8th grade.

In 7th grade (ages 12-13) they learn:

-The endocrine system: What it is, how it changes during puberty, common health problems

-The reproductive system: Female reproductive system, male reproductive system, stages of the menstrual system

-Sexual abuse/harassment: Traits of a responsible dating partner, how to tell if you are a victim, how teens can prevent abuse/harassment

In 8th grade (ages 13-14) they learn:

-Reproductive system: Functions of male/female reproductive systems, Similarities/difference in male/female reproductive systems

-Teen pregnancy: Ways to prevent pregnancy, fertilization, how teen pregnancy affects the lives of the parents as well as the unborn baby

-STDs: Why is it necessary to get tested?, lifelong health problems from STDs, bacteria/virus/parasite

From what I understand the "ways to prevent pregnancy" discussion does focus on "abstinence is the only sure way to prevent pregnancy", but teachers preface that with discussions on other birth control methods and their effectiveness.

All in all, I am very glad I live in the North East as this was pretty much my experience growing up in NJ, too.

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What actually does scare me is that they will eventually figure out that the bill is just too overreaching. It's a bridge too far, even for so called "pro-lifers" to vote to potentially outlaw IVF and criminalize miscarriage. Even a fundie-lite woman will think about her own miscarriage (which are quite common among all groups of women) and think twice. Then they will dial it back just far enough to make it palatable to these folks, and then it will become an issue again.

They seem to have realized it on the one they're going to try and push in Nevada - I can't find the exact thing I was reading on how it had been narrowed, however.

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