FEATURES
November 13, 1991
In the renewed debate about AIDS following Magic Johnson's announcement that he has tested HIV positive, a majority of callers to SUNDIAL (162 out of 279 respondents, or 58 percent) say they tell their children that abstinence is the preferred precaution against the AIDS virus.The remainder, 117 callers, said they emphasize education and safe sex."It's Your Call" represents a sampling of opinions from certain segments of the community, but it is not balanced demographically as would be done in a scientific public opinion poll.
NEWS
By Jonathan D. Rockoff and Jonathan D. Rockoff,SUN REPORTER | November 22, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski was among 14 Democratic senators who urged the Bush administration yesterday to dismiss an abstinence advocate who has been named to a federal family planning post. Mikulski signed a letter protesting last week's appointment of Dr. Eric Keroack and asking the administration to withdraw it. "Unfortunately, this appointment is another example of the Administration allowing ideology to trump science, and it could jeopardize vital services on which large numbers of women and families depend," the senators wrote.
NEWS
By RICHARD O'MARA | December 28, 1994
I never was much for charity. Oh, I pass coins to panhandlers now and then, but I never give at the office; there's something about that whole procedure that puts me off. A few dollars a week ticked from my check, it seems so removed, so bureaucratized. There's none of the warm feeling of superiority that direct contact with the object of one's charity usually returns. The way I see it, if I'm going to make a sacrifice I want to get something for it.This doesn't reveal cynicism so much as an understanding of the true impulse behind most giving.
NEWS
By Ellen Goodman | January 4, 2009
BOSTON - I hate to bring this up right now, when the ink is barely dry on your New Year's resolution. But if history is any guide, you are likely to fall off the assorted wagons to which you are currently lashed. I don't say this to disparage your willpower. Hang onto that celery stick for dear life. And even if you stop doing those stomach crunches and start sneaking out for a smoke, at least you can comfort yourself with fond memories of your moment of resolution. Compare that with the statistic in the newest research about teens who pledge abstinence.
NEWS
By Bronwyn Mayden | February 9, 2005
THE BUSH administration appears to be throwing good money after bad in funding for abstinence-only programs nationwide. Studies of the effectiveness of abstinence-only education show that the courses do not appear to decrease teen pregnancy or the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Yet the government has increased funding for these programs by more than 50 percent since 2001, spending about $170 million over that time. Eleven of 13 federally funded abstinence-only programs conducted in communities and schools in 25 states provide adolescents with false and misleading information about reproductive health, a report says.
NEWS
By ELLEN GOODMAN | November 14, 2005
BOSTON -- There was a time when only the loony left believed that the loony right favored death over sex. Not anymore. If you've been engrossed in the culture-war correspondence on the judicial front, maybe you missed the news on the medical front. While the religious right escorted Harriet Miers out and welcomed Samuel A. Alito Jr. in, a group of scientists announced the beginning of the end of a deadly cancer. In clinical trials, a new vaccine was 100 percent successful in preventing the virus that causes most cervical cancer, the second-leading cancer killer of women in the world.