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...handful of conservative U.S. news pundits have been denouncing the guidelines since late August, when they snapped up the online version of the UNESCO working document. The biggest issue for critics is the recommendation that educators begin teaching students introductory reproductive and sexual subjects earlier than usual: from the ages of 5 to 8. More detailed information would then be taught to kids ages 9 to 12. For kids ages 12 to 15, UNESCO recommends that students be instructed about contraception and the differences between "safe abortion and post-abortion care" and the potentially life-threatening forms of improvised pregnancy...
...Given their hostility to abortion and their insistence that abstinence is the only legitimate way of avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, it isn't surprising that some American conservative and Evangelical groups have reacted angrily to the UNESCO document. "U.N. Report Advocates Teaching Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds" read the headline of FoxNews.com's Aug. 26 story. "New UNESCO Sex Education Guidelines Call on Children to Promote Abortions," a LifeNews.com article announced on Sept. 1, the same day conservative news site CNSNews.com warned that "U.S. Funds U.N. Group That Supports Teaching 5-to-8-Year Olds about Masturbation...
...obsession with onanism is a bit curious, given that the 102-page document mentions masturbation only five times: twice to explain to 5-to-8-year-olds what the term means, saying teachers should note that it's "not harmful, but should be done in private," and the other three times in a section referring to 9-to-15-year-olds, pointing out that these kids should be told it "does not cause physical or emotional harm" and is "often a person's first experience of sexual pleasure...
...that focus and the wider conservative reaction to the UNESCO document seem to reflect a similar strategy to the one employed to fight President Barack Obama's proposed health-care reform. First, critics have launched the debate before UNESCO has even finished its recommendations, which are based on analysis of 80 different studies of sex-education programs. Second, they have broadcast sensational accusations of the offending proposal's intent to better grab the attention of - and alarm - the public. (See pictures of the health-care debate turning angry...
...David Gibson of AOL's Politics Daily reported, Martino showed up unannounced at a voter-education forum at a Honesdale parish to criticize organizers for discussing the comprehensive election guide endorsed by the USCCB instead of the letter he had drafted for the diocese on abortion. "No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese," Martino declared of the guide he objected to, which stated that there were a lot of issues, not just abortion, that Catholic voters should consider when making a decision about whom to support. "The USCCB doesn't speak...