This is either really funny or really sad...or both...
I surf around the Focus on the Family website in order to keep an eye on the enemy gain perspective and understanding about the radical right. Dobson (of course) has a special section all about abortion. What I found interesting, however, was that front and center, first thing on the page, was a quote by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
“That’s interesting,” I thought. I mean, I’ve used the AGI many times for school reports and such, and they certainly aren’t a source I’d expect Dobson to quote. “Maybe he’s starting to mellow on some of his views.”
How wrong I was.
So the very first thing on his page is this:
Each year, approximately 1.33 million pregnancies are terminated by abortion in the United States. Forty-nine percent of pregnancies among American women are unplanned. Of those women, 1/2 choose to have an abortion. -Alan Guttmacher Institute
Edit: It's been pointed out, much to my embarassment because it's totally obvious, that this statistic refers to all pregnancies, where the statistic I use below refers to teen pregnancy. Thanks!
Okay, gotcha. Morbidly curious, I wonder what Dobson’s position on sex-ed is, considering the statistics AGI has produced regarding comprehensive sex education, etc. And, well…
Here somebody asks if “...sex educations reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy.” Dobson’s response? “Hardly! As the safe-sex ideology has been taught in the nations schools, the rates of unwed pregnancy and abortion among teens have skyrocketed.” Hmmm. Well, that’s odd because according to AGI, the teen pregnancy rate is declining steadily. In case Dobson missed that article, it’s restated here and here. You know, I’m starting to get the feeling that Dobson doesn’t care about real data or about real people.
Dobson is then asked if he would talk to his children about condom usage. Dobson of course says no, citing that it would cause children to have more sex. He than says, quote, “…the failure rate of condoms is incredibly high, perhaps 50 percent or greater.” Really. Because AGI reports here that condom failure is nowhere near that high, ranging from 5.6% to 14.7% depending on age, length of use, etc. Which is still way too high, and it leads to what Dobson says next:
“Look at it this way. Suppose my kids were sky divers whose parachutes had been demonstrated to fail 50 percent of the time. Would I suggest that they simply buckle the chutes tighter? Certainly not.”
Leaving aside his incorrect data, Dobson makes a valid point. Just like a parachute has a back-up parachute in case of an accident, teens need to know about back-up b/c methods, including the morning after pill, etc, in case of emergency.
So Dobson abhors comprehensive sex education, going so far urge his people to get involved in legislating abstinence only education policies. But according to AGI (and again, I’m only using them because Dobson quotes them several times):
--950,000 teen pregnancies occur each year
--3 in 4 are unplanned
--1 in 4 end in abortion
Doing a little math, that gives us 712,500 unwanted pregnancies and around 178,125 abortions. The study goes on to report:
--The pregnany rate has declined steadily
--1/4 of the decline was due to delayed onset of sexual intercourse
--3/4 was due to increased use of highly effective and long-acting contraceptive methods.
Doing some more math, if 3/4 of those 178,125 practiced effective contraceptive methods, that would be 133593.75 abortions that never occurred.
Obviously, Dr. Dobson doesn’t care about preventing abortion as much as he pretends to.
I’ve yet to receive a reply but if I do you’ll be the first to know.
Dear Dr. Dobson,
I was surprised to find you quoted the Alan Guttmacher Institute several times on your website. I’ve become familiar with AGI through school projects, and I never thought of them as an organization Focus on the Family would connect themselves to. I immediately perused both your website and theirs, worried that one of you had drastically changed your outlook. I found that this was not the case, hence the purpose of the letter.
According to you, Planned Parenthood and comprehensive sex education have increased the teen pregnancy rate. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, however, the pregnancy rate has been falling steadily (Sexuality Education, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_sex_ed02.html). They also credit increased use of contraceptive use for 3/4 of the decline. Using AGI’s statistics, I did some math and discovered that comprehensive sex education, leading to increased contraceptive use, would prevent approximately 133593.75 abortions a year.
My question for you is this: if the Alan Guttmacher Institute’s research is correct, shouldn’t you be pushing for comprehensive sex education instead of trying to get rid of it? After all, that’s approximately 133,594 abortions per year that could be avoided. And if the Alan Guttmacher Institute isn’t correct, why are you quoting them at all?
I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
MY NAME
x-posted to dobson_survivor
“That’s interesting,” I thought. I mean, I’ve used the AGI many times for school reports and such, and they certainly aren’t a source I’d expect Dobson to quote. “Maybe he’s starting to mellow on some of his views.”
How wrong I was.
So the very first thing on his page is this:
Each year, approximately 1.33 million pregnancies are terminated by abortion in the United States. Forty-nine percent of pregnancies among American women are unplanned. Of those women, 1/2 choose to have an abortion. -Alan Guttmacher Institute
Edit: It's been pointed out, much to my embarassment because it's totally obvious, that this statistic refers to all pregnancies, where the statistic I use below refers to teen pregnancy. Thanks!
Okay, gotcha. Morbidly curious, I wonder what Dobson’s position on sex-ed is, considering the statistics AGI has produced regarding comprehensive sex education, etc. And, well…
Here somebody asks if “...sex educations reduce the incidence of teen pregnancy.” Dobson’s response? “Hardly! As the safe-sex ideology has been taught in the nations schools, the rates of unwed pregnancy and abortion among teens have skyrocketed.” Hmmm. Well, that’s odd because according to AGI, the teen pregnancy rate is declining steadily. In case Dobson missed that article, it’s restated here and here. You know, I’m starting to get the feeling that Dobson doesn’t care about real data or about real people.
Dobson is then asked if he would talk to his children about condom usage. Dobson of course says no, citing that it would cause children to have more sex. He than says, quote, “…the failure rate of condoms is incredibly high, perhaps 50 percent or greater.” Really. Because AGI reports here that condom failure is nowhere near that high, ranging from 5.6% to 14.7% depending on age, length of use, etc. Which is still way too high, and it leads to what Dobson says next:
“Look at it this way. Suppose my kids were sky divers whose parachutes had been demonstrated to fail 50 percent of the time. Would I suggest that they simply buckle the chutes tighter? Certainly not.”
Leaving aside his incorrect data, Dobson makes a valid point. Just like a parachute has a back-up parachute in case of an accident, teens need to know about back-up b/c methods, including the morning after pill, etc, in case of emergency.
So Dobson abhors comprehensive sex education, going so far urge his people to get involved in legislating abstinence only education policies. But according to AGI (and again, I’m only using them because Dobson quotes them several times):
--950,000 teen pregnancies occur each year
--3 in 4 are unplanned
--1 in 4 end in abortion
Doing a little math, that gives us 712,500 unwanted pregnancies and around 178,125 abortions. The study goes on to report:
--The pregnany rate has declined steadily
--1/4 of the decline was due to delayed onset of sexual intercourse
--3/4 was due to increased use of highly effective and long-acting contraceptive methods.
Doing some more math, if 3/4 of those 178,125 practiced effective contraceptive methods, that would be 133593.75 abortions that never occurred.
Obviously, Dr. Dobson doesn’t care about preventing abortion as much as he pretends to.
I’ve yet to receive a reply but if I do you’ll be the first to know.
Dear Dr. Dobson,
I was surprised to find you quoted the Alan Guttmacher Institute several times on your website. I’ve become familiar with AGI through school projects, and I never thought of them as an organization Focus on the Family would connect themselves to. I immediately perused both your website and theirs, worried that one of you had drastically changed your outlook. I found that this was not the case, hence the purpose of the letter.
According to you, Planned Parenthood and comprehensive sex education have increased the teen pregnancy rate. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, however, the pregnancy rate has been falling steadily (Sexuality Education, www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_sex_ed02.html). They also credit increased use of contraceptive use for 3/4 of the decline. Using AGI’s statistics, I did some math and discovered that comprehensive sex education, leading to increased contraceptive use, would prevent approximately 133593.75 abortions a year.
My question for you is this: if the Alan Guttmacher Institute’s research is correct, shouldn’t you be pushing for comprehensive sex education instead of trying to get rid of it? After all, that’s approximately 133,594 abortions per year that could be avoided. And if the Alan Guttmacher Institute isn’t correct, why are you quoting them at all?
I look forward to hearing from you regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
MY NAME
x-posted to dobson_survivor