Is Iran the sanest nation around when it comes to birth control?

New 'now imagine how much this would benefit America alone, this requirement to attend contraception classes' answers.

You don't think Americans have heard of contraception? In any case, the American birthrate (along with the rest of the west) is extremely low. Is there a single person on ILX with children?

dr. c, omar, to name two. (i know there are more.)

Also, this story is further proof that Bush is an absolute idiot for including Iran in his "axis-of-evil" nonsense. Iran is obviously a nation undergoing a rapid cultural transformation and instead of encouraging them to transition away from fundamentalism and towards openness and engagement with the west, he just gives them another reason to hate us. They are mostly non-arabs who speak an Indo-European language and could probably make an attractive ally in the region at some point.

billy dods, norman phay, a-33, gale

I would have given the prize to one of the European countries (the Netherlands? Sweden? France?) that both offers balanced and informative sex education and provides contraceptives at a reasonable price through a state health program. However, Iran gains a (tiny) measure of respect in my eyes for this policy.

That said, it would be very difficult to copy this in the United States:

1. Marriage laws are normally set at the state level, and it wouldn't be difficult for religious-right groups to interfere with any state-level legislation of this nature.
2. If a state were to pass any sort of mandatory premarital contraception education requirements, the religious right would insist on including opt-out features.
3. The pregnancies associated with the most socially disruptive results--young women who could have gone on in their education, but instead drop out and get caught in the cycle of dependency--tend to occur in unmarried women.

how exactly is iran moderate? working to undermine the karzai govt in afghanistan is moderate? funding hezbollah and arming them with katyusha rockets is moderate? rafsanjani demanding all islam take up arms against the us? khatami is a fraud, he has restricted freedoms (closed newspapers, jailed student leaders) since assuming his role as figurehead, he hasn't any real power the mullahs stll run everything and they aren't going soft but he is a nice face to show to the west. bush is more popular in iran now than before the speech, encouraging those who would overthrow the government with tacit signs of approval will do more than waiting for dictators to turn nice. i don't understand how it was wrong to prop up the shah but it is not wrong to engage the far more despotic mullahs?

if only wolabchia could endure a human host.

How can Khatami restrict freedoms if he has no power?

And I'm not encouraging propping up the mullahs, I'm saying exactly the same thing you are; I just don't think calling a nation evil is a good way to go about it and what is your evidence that Bush has any popularity in Iran after that speech?

What Kris said -- I too was thinking that maybe someone in BushCo was smarter than we might have thought by directing ire at the current Iranian government, but I'm not too sure if the results are apparent.

You don't think Americans have heard of contraception?

well, they might have heard of it, but 'hearing of' and 'knowing how to do it' are two different things. or have you not heard about the drive for funding only abstin ence education and not sex education in high schools, or the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule, or the right's obsession with disallowing the dissemination of other information about birth control (highlights from that link include the Bush administration's proposal to cut contraceptive coverage for federal employees and the South Carolina legislature's recent passing of a bill eliminating family planning funding for unmarried couples)?

asking whether or not anyone on ILX has kids doesn't exactly address this issue—the self-selecting group that makes up this board is in one way marked by its ability to acquire various forms of information.

and its preference for silly ones

Dr C., Omar, Billy Dods, Norman Phay, a-33 and Gale attending these classes is urgent and key

Probably we believe we have been behind, now we have to push ourselves forward. So why should we be hiding everything? Why shouldn't we be telling people that these condoms are good for you?

Apparently, Iranians are more forward-thinking than Bush made them out to be. Who knew that? *raises hand* He's from a generation that considered America to be superior over others. But then, it's hard to wage war on someone, if you humanise them.

Not that I agree with all of Iran's practices. (After all, women are still considered inferior to men.) But, at least they have taken an important step to educating people. It's difficult to empathise with a man that's working to cut the availability of birth control through insurance. In America, going through your insurance provider is the only way to get any. For example, the RU 486 pill is necessary in cases of rape or abuse. If the conservatives succeed, though, the FDA may be forced to pull it off the market. Of course, when the resulting pregnancy rates spike, then these same women get the blame. What sense does that make?

I'm guessing abortion or RU 486 aren't options in Iran.

They aren't options in some parts of the United States either. Sad, isn't it.