CARNAL NATION

While Americans are debating whether or not Obama's healthcare program is going to send old folks to the gas chambers, some Britons are upset at attempts by their own National Health Service to educate teenagers about disease and safer sex methods. Taking time out from their relentless efforts to kill Stephen Hawking, the NHS has been operating a program to give out free condoms and chlamydia tests from a bus in the seaside town of Bournemouth, a popular family resort.

Workers in the bus are giving out condoms with keychain holders, educational DVDs, leaflets, and free urine sample kits to teens 13 and up. The criticisms of the program are so familiar as to almost seem American. The Daily Mail quotes Wendy Hodge, mother of a 12-year-old daughter as saying, "I want my daughter to maintain her innocence for as long as possible and not be exposed to talk of sexually transmitted diseases or be handed a free condom." Hodge and others are aghast at the campaign, which was created by the Bournemouth Borough Council, claiming that it promotes underage sex, despite its official slogan: "R U Sure Ur Really Ready?"

Tim Fewell, the Bournemouth council's head of youth services, says that the intention of the program is designed to get young people to delay sexual activity, but that parents and policymakers need to be realistic as well. "Where young people are having sexual contact, we need to ensure they know about contraception and understand the consequences so they can make educated choices."

Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, claimed that educating kids about sex just doesn't work. "There is not a shred of evidence to show that ignorance of contraception is responsible for high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections," Wells claimed. "Young people have never had more information about contraception and yet the more money that has been invested in contraceptive education, the higher sexually-transmitted infection rates have risen."