Joycelyn Elders Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who loved enough to make sexual decisions for anybody else.

Joycelyn Elders
We've tried ignorance for a thousand years. It's time we try education.

Joycelyn Elders
I'm against abstinence programs because I really consider "abstinence only" child abuse.

Joycelyn Elders
If you can't control your reproduction, you can't control your life.

Joycelyn Elders
I want every child that's born in the world to be planned and wanted.

Joycelyn Elders
We know that more than 70 to 80% of women masturbate, and 90% of men masturbate, and the rest lie.

Joycelyn Elders
How do you get rid of the trash? It's out there in society, it's going on every day […] You can educate children an awful lot easier than you can get rid of the trash.

Joycelyn Elders
Condoms will break, but I can assure you that vows of abstinence will break more easily than condoms.

Joycelyn Elders
If you say children wouldn't know anything about masturbation on their own, you've never changed a little boy's diaper.

Joycelyn Elders
If men went through menopause, we'd know everything about it, but we still don't even know if we should be taking hormones.

Joycelyn Elders
We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children.

Joycelyn Elders
If I could be the "condom queen" and get every young person who is engaged in sex to use a condom in the United States, I would wear a crown on my head with a condom on it!

Joycelyn Elders
In regard to masturbation, I think that it is something that is a part of human sexuality and it's a part of something that perhaps should be taught. But we've not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel we have tried ignorance for a very long time and it's time we try education.

Joycelyn Elders