Вредно для несовершеннолетних

2. Recent reports by the Kaiser Family Foundation state that in interviews 98 percent of parents thought sex education should include information about sexually transmitted diseases; 97 percent thought it should talk about abstinence; 90 percent said birth control should be discussed; and 85 percent said it should teach kids how to use condoms. The following two reports of the Kaiser Family Foundation provide this information: "The AIDS Epidemic at 20 Years: The View from America," A National Survey of Americans and HIV/AIDS (June 2001), and "Sex Education in America: A Series of National Surveys of Students, Parents, Teachers, and Principals" (September 2000).

3. Ralph J. Di Clemente, "Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections among Adolescents: A Clash of Ideology and Science (Editorial)," Journal of the American Medical Association 279, no. 19 (20 May 1998): 1574-75.

4. Ira L. Reiss and Harriet M. Reiss, Solving America's Sexual Crisis (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 1997). My two immediate predecessors as Surgeon General, Antonia Novello and C. Everett Koop, had called for sex education and advocated the use of condoms. The call to action of our present Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, would also appear to be supportive.

Introduction

1. Whereas the assets of the richest 20 percent of Americans can keep them afloat for about two years without a paycheck (at the same level of spending) most of the middle class are able to last just over two months. The poorest 20 percent can't make it a day. Doug Henwood, "Wealth Report," Nation (April 9, 2001): 8.

2. Lauren Berlant, The Queen of America Goes to Washington City (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997), 3.

3. Hillary Rodham Clinton, "Doing the Best for Our Kids," Newsweek, special issue, spring/summer 1997.

4. The average age at which girls show signs of puberty is just under nine for African American and just after ten for white American girls. Susan Gilbert, "Early Puberty Onset Seems Prevalent," New York Times, April 9, 1997. In 1990, the median age of first marriage for women was twenty-five; for men, it was twenty-seven. Sally C. Clarke, "National Center for Health Statistics Advance Report of Final Marriage Statistics, 1989 and 1990," Monthly Vital Statistics Report 43, no. 12 S1 (July 14, 1995).

5. This is true even when the groups are comparable in terms of family income, neighborhood, and so on. "Teen Sex and Pregnancy," Alan Guttmacher Institute report, September 1999; "Adolescent Sexual Behavior: I. Demographics" and "Adolescent Behavior: II. Socio-Psychological Factors," Advocates for Youth reports, Washington, D.C., 1997.

6. Kristin Luker, Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996), 89.

7. A more recent dip is being seen among boys but not among girls. "Trends in Sexual Risk Behaviors among High School Students—U.S. 1991-97," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 47 (September 18, 1998): 749-52.

8. "Teen Sex and Pregnancy," Alan Guttmacher Institute.

9. Luker, Dubious Conceptions, 9.

10. National Health and Social Life Survey of 1994. Freya L. Sonenstein et al., Involving Males in Preventing Teen Pregnancy (Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 1997), 16.

11. Lucinda Franks, "The Sex Lives of Your Children," Talk (February 2000): 104.

12. Diane di Mauro, Sexuality Research in the United States: An Assessment of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, pamphlet (New York: Social Science Research Council, 1995). Since Alfred Kinsey's research in the 1940s and 1950s, the only major comprehensive large-scale national behavioral study was conducted by Edward Laumann et al. at the University of Chicago and published as The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). This study, initially planned to be much larger, was repeatedly stymied by conservative political interference in its funding.

13. "Research Critical to Protecting Young People from Disease Blocked by Congress," Advocates for Youth press release, December 19, 2000, www.advocatesforyouth.org/news/press/121900.htm.

14. "Most Adults in the United States Who Have Multiple Sexual Partners Do Not Use Condoms Consistently," Family Planning Perspectives 26 (January/February 1994): 42-43.