things that don't surprise me.

in the wake of all this HHS birth-control-is-abortion bullshit, isn't it a comfort to know that the number of women seeking birth control services has increased over the past decade? and that adolescents have played a significant role in that increase? and that the bush administration is as out of touch with reality as ever? HHS secretary michael leavitt has since started trying to sidestep all the rancor that's been set on him, though he's doing a poor job of it. his line right now follows:

An early draft of the regulations found its way into public circulation before it had reached my review. It contained words that lead some to conclude my intent is to deal with the subject of contraceptives, somehow defining them as abortion. Not true.

The Bush Administration has consistently supported the unborn. However, the issue I asked to be addressed in this regulation is not abortion or contraceptives, but the legal right medical practitioners have to practice according to their conscience and patients should be able to choose a doctor who has beliefs like his or hers.

someone should probably remind leavitt the basics of morphology and syntax: you can put words together, but that doesn't make them a sensical utterance.

from the land of, "no, really?", a panel at the american psychological association concluded after two years of study that abortion does not, in fact, cause the crazy. which is evidently the same damn thing they decided in 1990. but they couldn't just come out and say, "no, fuckwits, there is not one ounce of evidence that abortion causes much more thanguilt at being so relieved." oh, no. this is what they spun us:

“The best scientific evidence published indicates that among adult women who have an unplanned pregnancy, the relative risk of mental health problems is no greater if they have a single elective, first-trimester abortion or deliver that pregnancy,”

so, you won't go crazy if you're over the age of 18 and only have one abortion within the first 12 weeks. if you're 17? week 13? abortion number 2? the APA is making no guarantees. what i want to know is, did they just not include women under 18 in their study [which is hilariously short-sighted], or did they just not have the balls to say, "signing your 16-year-old's consent form will probably incur less mental harm than forcing her to bear a child she doesn't want." i'd like to read more about teens' post-abortion outcomes. so, if any of the handful of people who read this come across anything, feel free to send it my way.

in other unsurprising news, guttmacher reported that teens are confused about sex and don't necessarily see abstinence and sex as mutually exclusive. so much for shoving the party line down our teens' throats [the upward trend of teen pregs isn't exactly a vote of confidence for them either, as i've pointed out before.].

and now for something that actually made me happy: the democrats' party platform. not only did they strike out the wimpy "safe, legal and rare" nonsense, they also specifically included comprehensive age-appropriate sex education. be still my fucking heart. there's more in the RH reality check report here.

finally, i discovered google alerts today. look out, world; whenever there's a mention of sex education or teen pregnancy, i'm going to know about it. hot.