Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Boston Legal - Alan Shore argues for Condoms and against Abstinence Only Education





In this scene, from s04e03 "The Chicken and the Leg", Alan Shore (played by James Spader) argues against abstinence only education. His client, a 15 year old girl, was taught abstinence only. When she finally gave in to her biological urges she had unprotected sex. As a result, she contracted HIV. 

In this episode, Alan Shore helps her sue her school because it chose to teach abstinence only education in order to receive federal funding from the Bush Administration.

In his powerful closing argument, Shore argues that the condom is perhaps the most important invention of the last 3000 years, and for schools to discredit the effectiveness of condoms is akin to conspiracy to commit murder. He details how the health of the world depends on condoms, how important they've become since the rise of HIV, how there's no evidence linking abstinence only education to lower teenage pregnancy rates, and how some the the abstinence only literature shamefully and wrongfully compares using a condom to playing Russian roulette. 

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