Bristol Palin is Paid $262,500 For Abstinence Campaign

April 7th, 2011

Los Angeles Times Blog

By: Emily Christianson

Bristol Palin took home $262,500 in 2009 for advocating against teen pregnancy, tax documents show. Apparently abstinence can be very lucrative.

The big bucks came from the Candie’s Foundation, a group aimed at shaping “the way youth in America think about teen pregnancy and parenthood.”

“We know that Ms. Palin’s work has had a positive effect on creating awareness about teen pregnancy,” Candie’s spokeswoman Ali Tyrangel said in a statement.

The reality show star, who made headlines as a teen mom in 2008 during her mother Sarah Palin’s run for vice president, even took her Candie’s campaign on her stint with “Dancing with the Stars.” Remember her awkward “pause before you play” sex talk with The Situation?

Critics are already taking shots at Palin, now 20, but some people are defending her, according to E! Online, saying, “The money she received was from multiple projects she did with them. She shot PSAs, print and Internet ads and did town hall meetings, as well, and the money she made was an accumulation of all of that. This is not out of the ordinary for a celebrity to make an income off of a charity they represent.”

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STDs on Rise According to CDC

November 16, 2009

Reuters

By Maggie Fox

American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

Latest statistics on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show the three highly treatable infections continue to spread in the United States.

“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world,” Douglas added in a telephone interview.

The administration of President Barack Obama has signaled a willingness to move away from so-called abstinence-only sex education approaches promoted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, and conservative state and local governments.

Several studies have shown such approaches do not work well and that it is better to encourage abstinence while also offering children and teens information about how to protect themselves from diseases as well as pregnancy.

“We haven’t been promoting the full battery of messages,” Douglas said. “We have been sending people out with one seatbelt in the whole car.”

SOARING RATES

The CDC’s latest study on STDs found:

* 1.2 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2008, up from 1.1 million in 2007.

* Nearly 337,000 cases of gonorrhea were reported.

* Adolescent girls 15 to 19 years had the most chlamydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

* Blacks, who represent 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

* Black women 15 to 19 had the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea.

* 13,500 syphilis cases were reported in 2008, an almost 18 percent increase from 2007.

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