By request, a clarification…

A certain Terraling asked this bitch for some clarification on some shit from a previous post. Specifically, Terraling wants to know if by stating…

We are a people who hear political surrogates talk about 'black luck' while we witness black reality....who hear anti-choice advocates talk of black genocide while we witness their policy in action – HIV/AIDS infections, teen STI rates, teen pregnancy and a threat to black families that mocks the term pro-life.

…a bitch meant to say that “there is a deliberate (rather than, say, shamefully neglectful) policy to undermine the black population with HIV etc etc.”

Great question!

This bitch is a front line activist who works with youth and I know that anti-knowledge anti-prevention policies are having a devastating impact on communities of color. I didn’t need to read a newspaper report to know that teen STI rates were on the rise…I don’t need to look at a spreadsheet to know that my community is in the midst of a STI outbreak that represents a staggering percent of the youth population…and I don’t need to attend a hearing to know that reproductive health clinics that are a tremendous resource to my community are fending off attacks from the very people pontificating about the value of human life.

But Terraling’s question isn’t about what I know or what the data tells us…it’s about what the anti-choice side knows and their response to the data.

Pause…sip water…continue.

In reaction to the one in four teen female STI rate, here’s what one of them had to say.

Linda Klepacki, sexual health analyst for Focus on the Family Action
“With such high disease rates in teenagers, we’re just missing a tremendous opportunity to talk to them about the benefits of being abstinent until marriage." … "This is the time to teach kids about personal accountability and abstinence education. As it looks from this conference, the CDC is not grabbing that opportunity and taking it.” As told to Family News in Focus.

Blink.

Now, this bitch will be the first person to say that abstinence education and personal responsibility both need to be staple dishes served at the comprehensive sex education table, but that one in four teenage female STI rate data is screaming that abstinence education alone is simply not nutritionally balanced.

My experience doesn't support abstinence only education as the answer nor do the facts support that shit.

So, I’m left wondering if Linda and those like her really give a flying shit about facts…about the risk of cervical cancer from HPV infection…about the way our nation’s healthcare crisis factors in to a lack of treatment drama for all of these sexually transmitted infections…about the connection between teen pregnancy and those high High School drop out rates everyone has been chatting about…about the connection between dropping out of high school and healthcare disparities, depression, neglect and poverty…about the lives of women and children and youth and the future of communities.

Sigh.

At a certain point shamefully neglectful becomes deliberate action, but this bitch isn't a fan of absolute statements and I'm not working up to one here.

Some on the anti-choice side are being shamefully neglectful...others look like they have crossed that line...and the majority are advocating policies and programs that do not now and never will address the realities on the ground.

I hope that helps clear shit up...