Harry Potter and the cauldron of STIs...

That headline doesn't quite capture all the cheekiness, humour, irreverence and tongue-twisting (at times!) facts overload (but in a GOOD way) of an Insight Theatre *show*.  

You must attend one to get their infectious (ouch!) jokes and insightful moments.  I won't give away any punchlines; suffice to say JK Rowling's penchant for quirky names is amply explored in the naughty bits... err, skits about Sexually Transmitted Infections.  Hilarious, inspired and clever! 

The lively and talented writers/performers are adolescents who work with Planned Parenthood Ottawa staff to produce this amusing and informative show.

Last evening I spoke with Catherine Macnab and Lauren Dobson-Hughes who are respectively director and board president.  Insight Theatre is a gem in a crown of multi-faceted education and community outreach programs. We spoke about advocacy, the challenges of reproductive justice issues, pro-choice and The March for Lies, since the event is one that DJ! mines shamelessly for its unintended humour.  

Since hundreds and hundreds of Catholic Schools students who are bussed to Ottawa for the March wander about downtown Ottawa afterwards, volunteers wearing PPO shirts show up to give out information packets with its own PPO branded condoms in the ByWard Market, on Elgin Street and around Parliament Hill. 

The range of programs offered by PPO can be found here.

Unfortunately there are no videos posted yet from this year's repertoire, but here's a golden oldie from 2013:

To book a performance: all the information.

From the Department of Duh

The US National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has released an earth-shattering survey.

Three-quarters (75%) of adults think policymakers who are opposed to abortion should be strong supporters of birth control, according to a new survey commissioned by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Regarding sex education, more than 6 in 10 adults (65%) believe federally funded programs designed to prevent teen pregnancy should provide teens with information about both postponing sex and using birth control rather than either/or.In addition, most adults believe that taxpayer supported programs should focus on results rather than ideology -- 72% say that federal funds should primarily support those programs that have been proven to change behavior related to teen pregnancy. Nearly 7 in 10 (68%) adults surveyed believe their community needs more efforts to prevent teen pregnancy.

In other words, three-quarters of USians think the Rapepublicans, now featuring VP candidate, Paul ('Rape is a Method of Conception') Ryan, are totally out to fucking lunch.

And how do we here in the lawless north compare?

American teenagers are still getting pregnant at a higher rate than in other developed countries, including Canada. While the U.S. celebrates the decline to 67.8 pregnancies per 1,000 girls 15 to 19 years old in 2008, the latest Canadian statistic shows that in 2005, only 24.6 out of 1,000 girls aged 14 to 19 became pregnant.

A country with no abortion law, widespread comprehensive sex education, and a saner attitude towards sex in general has fewer than half the teen pregnancies of our christotaliban neighbour?

Huh.

Teen pregnancy rate map source.

Abstinence is "the best form of -- uh --"

Gov. Rick Perry confronted with statistics on increased teen pregnancy rates in Texas.

During an October 15, 2010 televised interview with Texas Tribune reporter Evan Smith, Perry's response was to reaffirm that "abstinence works." The audience laughed and Smith pointed out the state's abysmal teen pregnancy rate. "It works," insisted Perry. "Maybe it's the way it's being taught, or the way it's being applied out there, but the fact of the matter is it is the best form of -- uh -- to teach our children." Smith asked for a statistic to suggest it works [...]

From here.

And now for something completely different ...

In the hoohaw leading up to the G-8/G-20 spectacle and photo opp for Stevie Spiteful, we missed a delicious little tempest in a teapot about $arah, Bristol and a US political satirist.


This is what set off the fury of Palin's groupies - a blogpost and a cartoon for Florida's Sun-Sentinel.

Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, when Sarah Palin and her family were introduced to America in all their homespun glory, I couldn’t help but imagine what the Republican spin machine would have done had Joe Biden’s daughter been the one to get pregnant out of wedlock as a teenager.

Because it was Sarah Palin’s daughter, however, the pregnancy became a celebration of life and an affirmation, somehow, of the emblematic American family. Hypocrisy is a commodity that has never been in short supply in American politics. The latest, most titillating case is that of U.S. Congressman Mark Souder of Indiana, a fierce protector of traditional family values (with all the usual anti-gay riffs), who just resigned from office.

Not only did he have sex with a staffer, but he even sat for a video interview with her touting the virtues of abstinence.

Well. The usual mob of fundamentalist religious rightwing zealots went ballistic, deliberately obfuscating the point of Lowe's observations (Bristol Palin marketing herself as a 30K per-appearance motivational speaker? that's a nifty mash-up of political opportunism and greed) while spinning it as an attack upon the sacred $arah and her holy progeny. This is typical:

Every parent viewing Lowe's cartoon should be outraged at his salacious, left-handed effort to demean Bristol Palin and to encourage America's daughters to embrace immoral practices.

As we've often observed when writing about Bible Spice and her traveling freak show, we just couldn't make this sh*t up.

Too Young to Invade Italy

It seems the UK has a teensy problem with teen pregnancy, like, it's right behind the Excited States in knocked-up kids among developed countries. And Canucks shouldn't be too smug in this department. We're in the top six, five of which are the UK and its former colonies, US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and, oddly, Hungary. (All -- except Hungary -- repressed Anglo cultures unable to talk birds and bees with our children?)

So, the Brits decided to tackle the problem by making sex ed mandatory in schools -- all schools, including the 'faith' schools.

Well, you know what happened next, right?

The Catlicks went berserk, demanding an opt-out.

But the government held firm . . .

Oh. Wait. There's an election coming up.

The bill was passed but with an amendment allowing misogynist Christoids faith schools to teach that birth control is wrong but still requiring them to teach it.

Commenter Mark Steel rants:

How can there be so many lunatics opposed to sex education? And apart from anything else, what makes them think a lesson about sex is going to make kids go out and immediately have sex? It's education about it, not an instruction to get it done before dinner break. Maybe they should demand an end to history lessons as well on the grounds that "I don't want my fourteen-year-old learning about Napoleon as he's too young to invade Italy."

It continues to astonish me that weaselly pols bend over and grab their ankles for this crap.

From the 'No Shit, Sherlock' File

Teenage birth rates higher in more religious states

Rates of births to teenage mothers are strongly predicted by conservative religious beliefs, even after controlling for differences in income and rates of abortion. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health have found a strong association between teenage birth rates and state-level measures of religiosity in the U.S.

But the researchers were struck by how much religiosity and teen birth go together.

"The magnitude of the correlation between religiosity and teen birth rate astonished us. . . . Our findings by themselves do not, of course, permit causal inferences. But, if we may speculate on the most probable explanation, we conjecture that religious communities in the US are more successful in discouraging the use of contraception among their teenagers than they are in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."

Yeah, that abstinence-only sex ed works real good.

By-bye Governor - Hell-o Runner.

The US media are buzzing about the anticipated confirmed announcement by Sarah Palin that she won't seek re-election for a second term as governor of Alaska - in order to concentrate on her run at the nomination for presidential candidate for the Republican Party? Some in Alaska will be happy to see her and her micro-management strategies leave. For example, some might hold her accountable for the loss of two dedicated public servants in the state department of Health and Social Services: Director Beverley Wooley and the state's chief medical officer, Jay Butler.

Wooley said her office did get direct criticism from the governor's office regarding the wording of a press release on teen pregnancy. The governor didn't like a quote from one of Wooley's staff so the quote was removed.

Wooley said she never had a policy discussion with Palin on any health topic, and they never met one-on-one. ... [She] says she was forced out of office because Gov. Sarah Palin felt she wasn't in step on social issues. ...

The division has about 550 employees and a budget of $100 million. It includes nurses and epidemiologists, health facility inspectors and keepers of birth and death records. Its staff members run health laboratories and try to prevent diseases like HIV and diabetes. The key source of tension was legislation that would have required girls under age 17 to get parental consent for an abortion, Wooley said Thursday. ...

Wooley said she also intended to answer questions from legislators and said she would rely on data, not anyone's personal beliefs. Whether she personally agreed with the governor is beside the point, Wooley said.

She intended to refer to studies from states that already had passed similar legislation, she said. Some of the research shows that, with parental involvement requirements, girls tend to get abortions later in their pregnancy, which is riskier and more expensive, she said. Other research shows fewer girls get abortions, which abortion foes like Palin likely would applaud. Wooley cautioned that the studies are small and not definitive because such laws are still fairly new.

"You let those facts speak for themselves. And truly, people will interpret those facts differently based on their own personal history and experience," Wooley said.

This interview in Runner's World with Palin is informative, with regard to her running style.

Update: Palin has resigned from her office, effective July 26.

Added by fern hill: AKMudflats is burning up. Just now, there were 205 comments, but subsequent pages wouldn't open. I'm going to check back later.

LOL cuz U R bay-beez haz bay-beez!

"becuz the dad’s name on the birth certificate is going to be I live in a house with four guys. It could have been any one of them."

When I first saw this site, words failed me. What is the purpose of whythefuckdoyouhaveakid.com?

Was it created in a moment of spite, a vile opportunity for adolescents to post pix of their peers ? Do these teens loathe and mock other teens for reasons beyond the fact they are kids having kids? Are they using this website to settle a score?

Though it's certainly been demonstrated that the failure of abstinence-only programs in the US was spectacular, it would seem unlikely that advocates for comprehensive Sex-Ed would use this tactic to promote their own programs. Fear and hate-mongering is not known to be an approach they advocate.

There's something deeply nasty and contemptuous, misogynist, classist and racist about this website, in spite of the disclaimer that all photos were obtained from public image hosting. For example, the jeering caption under that photo at the top of the post - does this young woman deserve to be tagged this way? No, she doesn't.

When I started paying attention to the background - generic birth control pills and Durex condoms - something clicked. Of course. The advertising consultants who designed this website are hoping that it goes viral. Because misery, tragedy and mean-spirited laughs are powerful tools for attracting people and selling them your product.

This website is not the new LOL CATZ. It's just a despicable advertising gimmick.

Wedding is off.

Few may be surprised by this turn of events, but it appears as though the Bristol Palin / Levi Johnston engagement is over.

Mercede Johnston claims the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska's governor dumped her brother, Levi, an out-of-work high school drop out. The sister claims Bristol Palin, who took her beau to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., has made it tough for her brother to spend time with his 2-month-old son, Tripp.

"Levi tries to visit Tripp every single day, but Bristol makes it nearly impossible," ... "She [Bristol] tells him he can't take the baby to our house because she doesn't him around 'white trash'!" she said.

In December, Levi Johnston's mother, Sherry, was arrested in an undercover drug sting and charged with six felonies involving the pain killer oxycontin.

It always seemed to me that the announcement of their plans to marry, which coincided with the news shortly after Sarah Palin was named McCain's running mate that her daughter was pregnant and unwed, was merely a tactic to silence critics.

If those teenagers had been madly in love and wanting to spend the rest of their lives together, the wedding would have been scheduled to take place before the birth of Palin's grandchild, preferably during the presidential election campaign to take advantage of MASSIVE media coverage.

In fact, it reflects well on Sarah that she didn't pressure the young couple to tie the knot ASAP and let them wait it out to see if their marriage would actually happen.

Bristol Speaks!

And she's smarter than her mother.

The Alaska governor's 18-year-old daughter expressed some startlingly unconservative views to her mom's good friend at Fox News, Greta Van Susteren, on her show Monday night.

She told Van Susteren that teaching sexual abstinence to teenagers is "not realistic at all."

Bristol Palin said, "I hope people learn from my story. It's so much easier if you're married, have a house and career. It's not a situation you want to strive for."

She speaks in complete, intelligible sentences, too!

Maybe that Palin12 campaign should be amended to Palin44.

Sexism rocks at OC Transpo, atheism not so much.

We were going to blog about this advertising campaign in the nation's capital but we didn't get A Round 2 It until Miss Vicky scooped us.

Virgin Radio? Pregnant adolescents? The Gods of Rock? Lock up your daughters? Now appearing at most of the local bus shelters.

A witty and powerful counter campaign has been started by accidental altruist. Thanks to Miss Vicky, we find out that OC Transpo is fine with taking money for an advertising campaign that is long on misogyny and short on humour but refused ads from the Freethought Association of Canada, a registered charity based in Toronto that promotes education on secular world views.

The ad, which says “There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life,” was rejected based on a clause in OC Transpo’s advertising policy that states, “Religious advertising which promotes a specific ethic, point of view or action that might be offensive to users of the transit system is not permitted,” said John Donaldson, the city’s program manager of transit, marketing and customer service. "We had a look at the policy and our response was we should not be running that ad,” he said.

So how about those Gods of Rock, presumably on a rampage to impregnate female adolescents? Isn't Virgin Radio promoting PANTHEISM?

Teen pregnancy: no longer shameful, still a concern.

It may be that the intense media visibility awarded to Bristol Palin’s unintended pregnancy will bring about a shift in public attitudes towards teen’s sex education.

Sarah Palin’s extreme and fundamentalist views on sex education, rape, and recently, on bombing abortion clinics have given these issues prominence in the US presidential election campaign. A successful fund raising initiative for Planned Parenthood in the US was launched by email. Thousands of thank you cards were sent to the Republican VP candidate in acknowledgement of her pivotal role in provoking US citizens to donate to Planned Parenthood.

Shortly after Palin’s nomination, e-mails began circulating suggesting that pro-choice women make donations to Planned Parenthood in her honor. As of this week, Planned Parenthood has received more than 40,000 donations in Palin’s name, totaling more than $1 million.

And tabloids reported that Jamie Lynn Spears may have unintentionally become pregnant again. Regardless of whether the rumour is founded or not, the public reaction seems to indicate that nobody believes in that quaint saying ‘Ignorance is bliss’ any longer. Even the young yet wise-cracking Juno took responsibility for her mistake and took charge of her choice.

A sensible, well-informed young woman observed the media frenzy around the Palin and Spears unintended pregnancies and wrote a well-researched article about concerns regarding adolescent sexuality.

Every year in the U.S, over one million teenagers become pregnant. Most recently, pregnant teens have flooded Planned Parenthood health centers. Last year, Planned Parenthood centers provided sex education to 1.2 million teens and adults. This year will yield roughly 750,000 pregnant teenage girls, which is a number 12 times more than that of people diagnosed with AIDS in 2008, as well as the total number of persons expected to die from some form of cancer this year.

In regards to percentages, this averages out to about 11 percent of all U.S. children being birthed by teens this year. By the time a teen has reached the age of 19, seven in ten teens have experienced at least one sexual encounter. … It is important that sex education be definitely enforced within schools and should not only approach the idea of sex and teens from an abstinence-only standpoint. According to an analysis of more than 115 studies researched by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (NC), teen sex education programs proved ineffective when including only abstinence-only material, by which teens were neither encouraged nor influenced to abstain or delay sex until a more age-appropriate time.

According to Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, effective sex education is based on “medically accurate information” that is both abstinence-based and also teaches contraception and proper sex initiation, which has proven to be more effective in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Richards argues that for the past eight years, roughly $1.5 billion or more of taxpayers’ money has been “wasted” on ineffective abstinence-only programs. Richards also demands that education and initiation of sex education must change with the next administration because the current policies have proven unsuccessful. “When it comes to sexuality education, there should be no debate. The only way our children can be prepared is to be informed; this isn’t about ideology, it’s about the health and safety of our kids.”

First posted at Birth Pangs