Sex Education in the City

Let's see what we learn from this article on sex education in city schools:

1) Some parents and religious leaders are outraged that schools plan to teach evidence-based information.

2) Despite the name, Fox "News" appears to be an entertainment program.

3) City officials are unfamiliar with the abstinence method of birth control.

4) Some parents want schools to offer abstinence-only indoctrination sessions as an alternative to education classes.

5) The Chinese government is incompetent.

6) Our government, not to be outdone in the incompetence department, wasted more than one billion dollars on abstinence-only indoctrination programs.

7) Last, but not least, President Obama magnanimously doled out a $250 million pay off, earmarked to undermine public health, to appease opponents of his health insurance reform.

Increase Use Of Birth Control In Pakistan

Good news from a survey of 95,000 Pakistani households:

The fertility rate among women in Pakistan has dipped significantly from 5.6 percent in 1990-91 to 4.1 in 2004-06, a phenomenon attributed to rising but uneven use of contraceptives and its growing awareness.

But this trend is more in Punjab than in other provinces.

Women bear much of the brunt of controlling childbirth, either through sterilization or by phasing out conception, reveals Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2006-07, Daily Times reported Saturday.

According to the report, half of married women use contraceptive methods and few women know about the use of condoms by males. Female sterilisation is on the rise and 84 percent children are breastfed in the first year of birth, it adds.

Slight Increase in Japan's Birth Rate

TOKYO - Japanese births rose for the first time in six years in 2006, according to government statistics announced Monday, offering a glimmer of hope for a rapidly aging society.

Japan's population of 127 million shrank in 2005 for the first time on record, mostly due to a steadily falling birth rate, raising the prospect of a severe labor shortage and difficulties in paying the health bills and pensions of large numbers of elderly.

But preliminary data for 2006 showed there were 1.086 million births in Japan last year, 23,000 more than the previous year, the Health Ministry said Monday.

Based on that data, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun calculated the birth rate for last year at 1.29 babies per women, up slightly from a record low of 1.26 in 2005. Despite the increase, the rate is still far below the 2.1 rate needed to keep the population steady.

The figures also showed that 732,000 couples were married last year, 18,000 more than in 2005, while divorces fell by 4,000 to 258,000.

Japan has been scrambling to implement measures to persuade couples to have more children.

A proposal adopted in June calls for increasing child care, promoting greater gender equality, and encouraging companies to be more flexible in allowing staff time to take care of family responsibilities.

But the high cost of raising children, as well as the lingering notion that women should quit their jobs after giving birth, has meant many opt to have few or no children.

It would be interesting to find out what contributed to the increase. In any case, if the trend continues, Japan will soon attain replacement rate.