Weekly Pulse: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Christine O’Donnell, Condoms, and Concussions

A recent government report found that more than 40 percent of unmarried U.S. teenagers — or 4.3 million teen males and females — have had sex at least once, and one in five girls said they’d be happy to get pregnant.

Written by Tatiana Mckinney for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

The CDC has found that the share of teenage girls who use the rhythm method as birth control (at least some of the time) jumped from 11 percent in 2002 to 17 percent in 2008.

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

California’s policies have undeniably made a positive impact on sex education in the state. But, unfortunately, sex education advocates can’t dust off our hands and move on. Many California public schools are still providing abstinence-only-until marriage programs, in spite of policies that forbid them.

Written by Phyllida Burlingame for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger

This week’s health care news was full of mind-bending paradoxes: Prostate health is girly, abstinence-only education works through failure, “principled” libertarian Rand Paul would protect all-white lunch counters but ban private abortion clinics, and more.

Bristol Palin wants to be paid $30,000 to to talk about abstinence-until-marriage. Is it worth it? The answer is an unqualified and unmitigated “no.” Here are 10 other things to do with that money.

Written by Patrick Malone of SIECUS for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

A new report by California Latinas for Reproductive Justice reveals that pregnant and parenting young Latinas face systemic discrimination in educational institutions and lack social supports in their communities.

Written by Rocio Cordoba for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Last summer, the $50 million-a-year federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage grant program died a quiet death, only to come back to life, zombie-like, in the healthcare reform bill.

Written by Jen Heitel Yakush for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Why is there a $250 million “bonus” for failed abstinence-only programs kept in the health reform bill?  Was this a chit to be traded for the votes of Democrats like Stupak?

Written by James Wagoner for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.

Abortion is a safe, legal medical procedure, and there is no reason for school health centers not to refer patients to providers if those patients want it.

Written by Amanda Marcotte for RHRealityCheck.org – News, commentary and community for reproductive health and justice.