To the Point

Abstinence and Sex Education

Chastity or condoms? The 1996 welfare reform act tied federal support for sex education to teaching abstinence-only, denying funds to programs that teach birth control. Teen pregnancy has declined but STDs are on the rise. Since most kids become active by age 20, is not teaching contraception irresponsible in the age of AIDS/HIV? America's war over private morality and public health generates passionate arguments as we'll hear from health experts committed to abstinence as well as those favoring contraceptive education for adolescents. Newsmaker: Boxer Announces She'll Vote Against Ashcroft - California Democrat Barbara Boxer is the first US Senator to announce she'll vote against confirmation of former Republican Senator John Ashcroft to be US Attorney General. She says that while Democrats will support most Bush's nominees, Ashcroft's record will make for a brutal conformation process. Reporter's Notebook: Tiananmen Square Papers - In 1989, "Tiananmen Square" became synonymous with brutal repression as TV showed the world Chinese troops using tanks and gunfire to disperse an enormous crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators. Perry Link is co-editor of the Tiananmen Square Papers. He talks to us about the recently released Chinese version of "the Nixon tapes".