Condom races, lube tasting, and how to make a dental dam — what better way to spend a Thursday night? Next Thursday, Oct. 29, the University chapter of Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, is putting on its Sexual Arts and Crafts Fair that takes place once a semester. This semiannual event aims to educate University students on safe sex and reproductive issues in a fun way. Along with this resource fair, Vox members dress up as “Condom Fairies” each Halloween and hand out free condoms at parties and bars around the University. These activities sponsored by Vox are a great way to address the sexual promiscuity of many college-aged students, and this organization effectively promotes safe sexual practices and informs students of important sexual health issues.
At the Sexual Arts and Crafts Fair, students will have access to medically accurate information on both sexual health and reproductive rights. In the past, information on emergency contraception has also been available, and students have been able to write letters to legislators about reproductive issues. Vox has also provided models of breasts and testicles for students to practice finding cancerous lumps.
There will also be a number of tables set up with fun — but informational — activities. For example, one of the tables will teach participants how to correctly put condoms on assorted fruits and vegetables, and have races to see who can put them on fastest (but accurately). In the past students have been given information on how to make dental dams (to promote safe oral sex practices), and participants have been able to make and decorate their own. There has also been a station where students can taste a number of different flavored lubricants (I’m not sure how much this can teach us, but it sure sounds like fun). Attendees can also decorate wands for the annual Halloween Condom Fairies.
Many American universities have become entrenched in the so-called “hook-up culture,” and many students engage in casual sex. To ignore these practices or to try to discourage them is ineffective and irresponsible. A study done by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 79.5 percent of college students (ages 18-24) are sexually active. In addition, a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy states that there are, “750,000 teen pregnancies annually. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended…” Furthermore, over 3 million teen girls contract an STI every year, and 15 percent of those girls have more than one of them. These alarming statistics show just how important it is to provide students with accurate information about all types of contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, and other sexual health issues. Any event that can reduce these numbers at the University is an important one.
The Sexual Arts and Crafts Fair and the Condom Fairies aim to do just that. By handing out condoms and literature about contraceptives, Vox is taking action against rising pregnancy and STI rates among teens. Some critics may argue that events such as these encourage the hook-up culture and promote casual sex, but that argument is analogous to saying that comprehensive sex-education policies raise rates of teen pregnancy and STIs and that abstinence only education is the most effective form of sex-ed. Many studies have shown the inaccuracy of this statement. In a study completed by the American Psychological Association (APA), it was found that “comprehensive sexuality education programs … are the most effective in keeping sexually active adolescents disease free.”
And if comprehensive sex-ed is best at keeping young people disease free, it stands that distributing condoms and literature on these issues will also keep us college students disease free. So thank you, Vox, for giving me the education that my state-funded Henrico County public school failed to provide. And thank you for providing a fun, open environment for me to ask all of my potentially embarrassing questions. And thanks for all of those free condoms.
So next Thursday at 7:30, I know where I’ll be. I’ll be in the Newcomb South Meeting Room putting on condoms, finding out my favorite flavor of lube, and learning a little bit more about safe sex. Yeah, it might be a little awkward for some, but at least you’re not hearing it from your mom. Or your overweight middle school gym teacher.
Claire Shotwell is a Viewpoint writer for The Cavalier Daily.
26 million dead from AIDS. Preterm birth and birth defects on the rise. 1 in 4 young girls have an STD. 3500 abortions a DAY. 1 on 8 women getting breast cancer.
You’d think that maybe, just maybe, the killing lobby might back off the culture of death a tad bit after 30 years of miserable failure in every category. But, alas, it remains VERY lucrative.
Thanks to the ghouls in VOX and people like Claire, we have become the world’s leader in breast cancer incidence. They suppress the science of what causes it simply to advance their very cruel political agenda.
Countless thousands of children are already living lives with cerebral palsy thanks only to their mother’s previous abortions. Even if you choose not count the millions of infants already dismembered and ripped from the womb as “dead” – the misery and suffering that these people continue to spread with their campaign of misinformation is truly revolting.
Take just a moment to clear your mind of all that is politics and profits and all else that impedes a clear, complete understanding of what can destroy your health based on the scientific facts. See and be forewarned of medical science that Claire and VOX and the UVA Health System is deliberately keeping you in the dark about regarding womens and childrens health. It might piss them off. But it might also save your life.
http://www.uvalies.org/
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Bursting bubbles is not something I like to do that often but no sex is better than safe sex. I totally agree with Sean. MY views tell me that even if your thinking about having sex the baby is alive. Condoms and birth control are just ways of killing a future baby. I am here to protect the babies that would have been born had it not been for ghouls….yes GHOULS… like Claire. Also I hear that condoms make your penis fall off. So UVA, Vox, and Claire, a student at this school, who must somehow also “be in on it”, get your hands off my penis!!
Yours truly,
Ignorant prick
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Dear Ignorant Prick,
A) You really might want to consider calling yourself something else. And no, a condom will not make your penis fall off. At least, it never happened to me.
B) Condoms, like diaphragms, are not cancer causing steroids. Neither will either end a pregnancy. Like abstinence, they can only prevent one. Unlike abstinence, they don’t always work. If you are going to pretend you can lump them all into the eugenics term “birth control,” then you have to include chemical (Plan B, RU-486) and surgical (rip, dismember, behead, suction) abortions also. Abortion is a very necessary part of UVA’s birth control program, since they know all the others they promote and lie about will result in hundreds of pregnancies per year on Grounds. And they have. Indeed, if all these pharmaceutical wonders worked so well, then how exactly is it that we still have 3,400+ surgical abortions A DAY in the US?? Sounds like something aint working, huh? But no amount of failure over any number of decades is enough for these propagandists to change their ways or perhaps embrace the realities of their failures – obviously.
C) Thanks so much for completely avoiding and ignoring the medical facts of how many women get breast cancer and how many children end up needlessly living a life with severe birth defects and developmental disabilities like cerebral palsy simply because college aged women are lied to by the people profiting from steroid sales and abortions. You made my point again by proving you cannot even begin to face reality.
I am the bubble burster here, not you. We have friends inside the hospital who have a conscience, and medical ethics for that matter. We have students at both schools in town who have the guts to stand up for womens health and human rights against those who destroy both. Your political agenda to keep people in the dark is not going to change one single scientific fact any sooner than it will change the moment you became male, had your own unique human DNA, and indeed became the one and only YOU that will ever exist.
Yours Kindly,
Ignorance Exposer.
PS, Besides Lila Rose (linked bottom of our Sanger page), here’s another woman who can detail the profit motive I mentioned above:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/06/04/planned-parenthoods-obscene-profits/
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Sean,
In the article you linked there is a quote: “In April, the annual report of Planned Parenthood Federation of America revealed that the abortion giant had a total income of $1.02 billion—with reported profits of nearly $115 million.”
So let’s do some basic math here 115 million / 1.02 billion = ~.1127. In terms of net margin that’s about 11.3%. In the most recent quarter Apple (the iPod and Mac maker) had revenue of 9.87 billion and net profit of 1.67 billion Let’s do the division again 1.67billion/9.87billion = .1691 or about 16.9%. So, margins for planned parenthood are much lower (almost 30% lower) than those of Apple Corporation not much of a profit motive.
It appears that a lot of your information (in both posts) is raw numbers placed out of context. Takes away from any valid points that you may have.
omya
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Earth to Omya..
Apple is NOT A GOVERNMENT FUNDED NON PROFIT ENTERPRISE.
The insanity the PP still gets away with calling itself “non profit” is just the tip of the iceberg. Even after they get done paying themselves huge 6 figure salaries and being among the top political donors in the country handing out boatloads of cash to friendly politicians – they still cleared $25-$50 million a year through the 80′s and 90′s. In 2005, they broke their own record with $55 million. 2007 brought in $112 million, and 2008 topped even that. How did this happen? Well, that’s easy!
http://www.frcblog.com/images/abortion_graph.jpg
http://www.frcblog.com/images/Planned-Parenthood-Chart-graph.gif
The fact that they are over 10% of Apple’s revenue is a shocking statistic not even I knew. Considering they make nearly all of their money selling steroids steroids and killing infants, it’s no wonder.. STILL, they get over $300 of our taxpayer dollars a year. Astonishing.
This is the money train groups like Vox keep rolling by getting to their prime money makers (college aged women) early. Destroying women’s health and and their children’s lives is very, very profitable. Their own numbers prove beyond every shadow of a doubt that their PR BS that they are protecting women’s health and lowering the number of abortions thru their “education” events have been complete failures for decades now. But you will never see them change their ways. Swimming in cash, why would they??
There have been a few of them that have grown a conscience, however, and revealed what really goes on behind the scenes. Nathanson (co-founder of NARAL) is not the only one. And they reveal the fact that even the numbers we are talking about here are not the real ones. They cover up vast amounts of it. Note none other than the original Ms. Jane Roe (her of Roe/Wade fame) saying “you can’t trace cash friend.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaTywSDmls
The “raw numbers” themselves are a fraud, and way too low. But even at that, they are shocking. None of them are out of context. They are what they are. And the results are here for everyone to see if only they dare look. Killing for profit. Birth defects for profit. Breast cancer for profit. Just like here at “Good Ole UVA.” Why let PP make all the cash, right?
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Omya, I responded with a lengthy reply yesterday – but the corrupt PC propagandists at the Cav Daily can’t handle a little free speech if it dares to expose even a few facts about their buddies at Planned Parenthood or the steroid dealers at the Teen Center.
So they deleted it.
This is in the same vein as covering up the story of the UVA student facing multiple felonies from assaulting a police officer last Saturday at the football game.
Certain things just are made “unnews” at this rag.
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
One comment left by Sean Cannan on October 27 was flagged as potential spam by an automated filter because of the number of links it contained. During a periodic sweep of the moderation queue, the comment was found and approved, and appears now as it was originally posted.
Hunter Tammaro
Operations Manager
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
I don’t know what the deal is with planned parenthood.
But why would you compare Apple’s profit margin to Planned Parenthood? One is a government funded non profit enterprise, the other is a corporation trying to make money. Completely unrelated.
I only know one person who has had an abortion (that I know of), and she has regretted it for years now.
All I can say is I am glad I am not a woman.
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
I have been approached, completely out of the blue, by an even dozen women who – for whatever reason – felt compelled to tell me, in graphic detail, about their abortions. A few have been total strangers who emailed me. But they are mostly UVA and/or Charlottesville women who have approached me in person. I did not expect this to happen, but it has. And although I try and very politely steer them toward a female in our group, or the Pregnancy Centers of Central Virginia, or perhaps even the After Abortion Blogspot – they refuse and seem to want to talk to a guy instead. What Earnan experienced is apparently not uncommon. Perhaps it’s because they have never told a man before, or perhaps that they know that I was forced to endure a similar experience from a position of powerlessness, having been told about it only afterward by my ex girlfriend.
While their initial conversations with me have run the gammut between “I want to apologize to my late father,” to “I think you are the biggest scumbag I’ve ever met” – every single one of them eventually gets around to the regret and depression and what a horrible experience it was. None of them will ever do it again. And I daresay that none of them would make the same choice if they had that choice to make again. Coercion – which is illegal – comes from several directions at once. It most often is overwhelming for a teenager or young adult.
Earnan, you seem to instinctively know that the one friend of yours that has confided in you so far is just the tip of the iceberg. The hundreds of abortions at UVA every year are a natural byproduct of the culture that is pounded into students by the Peer Health Educators and Vox starting in the dorms first year – and with events like the one described above. They get at them as early as they can. It is Peer PRESSURE Education at its very worst.
Indeed, UVA has modeled their program on that of Planned Parenthood. This all began – and continues – as a very coordinated and well planned regime that was begun 20 years ago with the plans and construction of the Elson and Teen Centers – and the vaulted status of the Women’s center. Naturally, there is no Men’s Center. If Will Barrow was looking for a comparatively male centered source for help with emotional problems last semester, he had no where to go. Women for their part are taught early and often that these subjects are to be strictly kept quiet. There is no room for PAS at UVA as I and my ex gf both learned. There is only the cover up of anything related to it. It’s just like telling women the truth about the steroids they hand out – it’s bad for business, so it aint gunna happen. Partisan politics and profits come first. And last, for that matter.
There are some people in the Health System who actually believe in ethics and conscience and science, but to date we haven’t heard from any really high ranking people, so they remain anonymous for now to protect their jobs, promotions, and grades. But Planned Parenthood HAS had some very high profile leaders who grew a conscience and blew the whistle on the people they have been working alongside. UVA competes with PP for steroid and abortion sales, but they do so employing the same dishonesty, the same corruption, the same cover ups of the aftermath.
Here are just a few of the whistle blowers, including the infamous “Jane Roe” from Roe vs. Wade. People who know how the system works, because they used to run it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYaTywSDmls
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0
Yet another Planned Parenthood woman has had enough, quit, and blown the whistle. Publicly. It warms the heart when someone knee deep in the blood and guts – a director no less – re embraces the humanity and common sense of a child. Note that she never even saw an abortion – she simply saw the grainy, black and white ultrasound of one.
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/68441827.html
“I just thought I can’t do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that’s it,” said Jonhson.
She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years.
“It seemed like maybe that’s not what a lot of people were believing any more because that’s not where the money was. The money wasn’t in family planning, the money wasn’t in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that,” said Johnson.
“I feel so pure in heart (since leaving). I don’t have this guilt, I don’t have this burden on me anymore..”
Report this comment
Agree/Disagree:
0 
0