Abstaining from Sex Education Politics

[Gene C. Gerard]

Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) held a conference on sexually transmitted diseases. The conference was slated to include a panel discussion entitled “Are Abstinence-Only Until Marriage Programs a Threat to Public Health?” However, Indiana’s Republican Congressman Mark Souder complained to the Health and Human Services Department about “the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective.” Consequently, the title was changed to “Public Health Strategies of Abstinence Programs for Youth,” and advocates of abstinence-only sex education replaced two members of the panel. It’s troubling that a conservative Republican was able to wield so much influence over a federal agency at the expense of science.

A spokesman for Rep. Souder said he was concerned that the panel would promote nothing positive about abstinence-only education. Apparently, that was because one of the panelists was scheduled to address the evidence linking abstinence-only education and rising rates of sexually transmitted diseases. This panelist and another individual were removed from the panel and replaced by Dr. Patricia Sulak and another physician, both of whom are proponents of abstinence-only programs. Although the other panelists went through a peer-review screening process, neither of these individuals did. And while the other panelists had to pay their own way to attend, the CDC used taxpayer dollars to pay for both abstinence proponents.

Dr. Sulak is the director and author of a pseudo sex education program entitled “Worth the Wait.” This program is used in grades six through high school in 31 school districts in Texas. According to a review of the program by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Worth the Wait relies on messages of fear, discourages contraception, and attempts to make students feel guilty rather than educating them.

The Worth the Wait program discourages any meaningful discussion of contraception. An entire lesson is entitled “Why Contraceptives are not the Answer for Teens.” Dr. Sulak apparently believes that if contraception is presented as improper, teens will simply choose not to have sex. Yet studies suggest that almost half of all teenagers are sexually active. By refusing to discuss contraception, this program leaves teenagers more likely to engage in sex without contraceptives, making them susceptible to pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

And the program provides misleading information by encouraging students to take so-called virginity pledges. Students are asked to sign a pledge that they will not have sex until marriage. And it advises students, “Research has shown that teenagers who sign abstinence pledges are much less likely to have intercourse.” This has been proven false many times over. Studies have shown that at best, abstinence pledges simply delay the onset of sex. And studies have demonstrated that teenagers who take such pledges are less likely to use contraceptives when they become sexually active.

A 2005 study of abstinence-only sex education programs in Texas, where Worth the Wait is used, found that they had “little impact” on teenagers’ behavior. The study by the Texas Department of Health determined that girls in the ninth-grade were five percent more likely to engage in sex after taking abstinence-only programs. And boys in the tenth grade were 15 percent more likely to engage in sex after participating in abstinence-only classes. The study’s lead researcher concluded, “We didn’t find strong evidence of program effect.”

Ironically, the day before the CDC panel on abstinence-only programs was held, Harvard University released the results of a comprehensive study on abstinence pledges. The National Institute of Child Health and Development conducted the government-sponsored study. Over 14,000 teenagers were interviewed between 1995 and 2001. The study found that 52 percent who took the pledge had sex within one year of doing so.

Conservative Republicans have aggressively funded abstinence-only education programs since President Bush took office. Over 100 such programs have been funded in recent years. Congress allocated $168 million for abstinence programs in last year’s budget. This year, $182 million was funded for abstinence-only education, and $204 million has been allocated for 2007. But it isn’t benefiting our nation’s teenagers.

In 2004 the House of Representative’s Government Reform Committee issued a report on federally funded abstinence-only sex education programs. The report determined that out of the 13 most popular programs, 11 contained “unproved claims outright falsehoods.” Some of the false statements included assertions that a man can get a woman pregnant by merely touching her, that women who have abortions are prone to suicide, that AIDS can be spread through sweat, and that condoms cannot prevent sexually transmitted diseases. Clearly, these programs supplanted science with political ideology.

It was inappropriate for Congressman Souder to exert so much influence over a federal agency. And it’s offensive that the Bush administration allowed him to do so. Science should remain free from political persuasion and ideology. The health and welfare of the country’s teenagers depend on abstaining from sex education politics.

[duhneece]

1. Alamogordo NM will only provide 'abstinence-only' education

Your column, & the references you listed, will soon be part of my strategy to bring this topic to the Otero County Community Health Council.

When a state legislator tried to initiate a state wide comprehensive sex education bill, members of the Council passed around one part of one of several possible curriculumss (curriculi?) that suggested grape jelly as a possible lubricant and suggested Councel members write to our representatives to oppose this.

Not even juniors or seniors in high school get good information. I have overheard girls in the bathroom where I work 'share' myths like, 'you can't get pregnant the first time' 'you can't get pregnant if you do it standing up'....

Thank you so much for spurring me on to do something in my own community.

[ThomCat]

2. Pushing pseudo-science for political reasons

should be considered a violation of ethics. Things like this make me furious at everyone who supports mass religion. Either directly or indirectly, that support encourages things like this.

[SammyBlue]

17. Depends on the Religions. Don't confused my religion (Jewish)

with these quasi religious political hustlers. Their Christianity (G-d, I am getting tired of that word) is what's driving this. They invented the phrase Judeo-Christian. We didn't.

When you say religion, please clarify. Other than that, I agree completely.

These quasi-scientists that scream abstinence only lie to these kids. My brother (laughing at the asshole all the way) was told he could get a woman pregnant by kissing her and that holding hands can pass HIV from one to another.

Luckily, he has two teachers and an accountant in the family (All with Master's Degrees) that debunked everything the 19 year old fundie freeper said.

[987654321]

18. Fortunately your brother has a family to talk about these things with.

I feel bad for all of the kids who get so much mis-information and get no opportunity to discuss these things openly with knowledgeable people at home.

[ContraBass Black]

3. Amazing.

As I read, I screamed "What?" louder after each paragraph.

[Time for change]

4. I've worked for the FDA for 6 years, and I can tell you that they've done

the same thing to the FDA.

[PublicWrath]

24. I am extremely interested in anything about the political/corporate

subversion of the FDA. Would you feel comfortable sharing (in general terms) the sorts of things going on?

[Time for change]

28. Sure - I'll start out by sharing with you a couple of posts I posted

a while back:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2264993

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4980295

And here's an article about a case I was personally involved in:
http://www.irbforum.org/forum/read/2/79/79?PHPSESSID=7839c64825be654210f19b67e5c9fc0c

Let me know if you have questions about any of this - and what is the basis for your interest in this?

[tocqueville]

5. one shouldn't abstain from sex education.... nt

[Tsiyu]

6. This is an absolute outrage

"Faith-based" sex-education is dangerous and puts our entire nation at risk.

Forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for it is absolutely unconstitutional and criminal.

The CDC means absolutely NOTHING to science now. They may as well put altars up in all of their labs and tell the scientists to don priests' and nuns' garb and instead of studying disease, pray about germs and Jeebus.

This thoroughly disgusts me, because I have seen the proof: ABSTINENCE EDUCATION DOES NOT WORK.

[thoughttheater]

7. Abstinence: Uganda HIV Rates Suggest Failed Approach

Read an article on how the Bush administrations support of abstinence to combat HIV may be responsible for an alarming increase in HIV infection rates in Uganda...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

[LibDemAlways]

8. Welcome to DU...Thanks for the link.

Your blog is interesting and thought-provoking. Hope you'll become a regular here, too.

[Bette Noir]

9. Abstinence education

I'm shocked, shocked that politics trump truth in the Bush administration.

[PublicWrath]

25. I love your username! Welcome to DU!!!

[DFW]

10. I saw some statistics

..that showed the most unwanted pregnancies, the most violence, the most divorces
all occur in red states. In other words they talk the talk and don't walk the
walk, so they think that by shouting lourder and louder, what they wish to be
true will become true.

But this is not propaganda, or some right-wing diatribe on National Hate Radio.
Reality will not be swayed by Bible-thumping Republican congressmen, and hormones
will not disappear just because of some idiotic crowd-pleasing legislation.

As kids' hormones kick in when they reach puberty, they'll want to have sex. If
they didn't or could be talked out of it, there would be no next generation. What's
the big deal? These right-wing loonies apparently think they can legislate a change
in Mother Nature, and as we all know, it's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

And she isn't fooled. They are only fooling themselves.

[kiteinthewind]

11. We are tackling this on a local level here in Independence, Missouri

I am a registered nurse and I am knowledgeable about all the statistics for these Abstinence Only programs, a lot of which has just come out the last three years. Our local school district has been having public BOE 'arguments' about an Abstinence Only Until Marriage curriculum they tried to implement without board approval. Now I am on a Human Sexuality Task Force to study the issue and present our findings to the BOE. I think part of the problem is that there is confusion about AO and Abstinence BASED. Of course, when we talk to adolescents about sex we present abstinence as the only 100% protection from pregnancy and STD's, BUT we also have to be realistic that even if some kids choose to wait, when they do become sexually active, whenever that may be, we want them to know how to protect themselves. Also, half of those kids are probably already sexually active, and we totally dismiss their needs by not teaching them about contraception and protection from STD's, including life-threatening ones! Then there is also the 'until marriage' part of the curriculum that does NOT address the needs of lesbian/gay students. Here in the great state of Misery (Missouri), an amendment passed in 2004 stating that marriage is only between a man and a women. So the message from this curriculum for L/G teens is that you should never have sex (since you will never be able to be married in this state). These radical right-wing fundamentalists have also infiltrated our state legislature and we BARELY kept a bill from passing this session that would prevent health educators from even DISCUSSING or referring to contraception. If this bill would have passed, any educator who was asked by a student how to protect themselves from STD's or pregnancy if they were sexually active, would have to say, 'you need to make an appointment with your family practitioner to discuss that'. Yea, right. The sponsor of the bill, also added an amendment (that passed) to the Dept. of Health appropriations bill that prevented any of the state funds to be used for Family Planning, which not only includes contraception services, but also mammograms, gynecological exams, etc. She publicly stated that, as a state, we should not "promote promiscuity" by providing these services. I repeat, this amendment was PASSED! I have come to understand, now, that these fanatics are not REALLY trying to prevent ABORTIONS, they are trying to prevent SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE, which is a RELIGIOUS belief, and they are managing to do it with this insane legislature!! I am a Christian (the kind that follow the compassionate teachings of Jesus-yeah, remember Him?). These people thoroughly DISGUST me. They are not only CAUSING abortions, STD's, and unplanned pregnancies, but they truly believe that these things are a 'punishment' for what they call immoral behavior. They are self-righteous HYPOCRITES! The book should have been, "What's Wrong with Missouri?"
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[kiteinthewind]

12. BTW, Excellent Post!!!!

:toast:

[lilypad_567]

13. i think that this have something to with money

look, the more kids are misinform about sex education, the more they are to practice sex without protection, and the more unwanted pregnancy. so that means, more money for the corporates. look, the corporates need more money, and how do you get more money, by having more babies, and if yo give anybody the right to sex education, than that means that lees money for your company, and so they started lying and said that it is against god to have sex outside of marriage, that way, with the misinformation, the more unwanted babies you have, the more money that goes into you pocket. also, i went on to teen wire, and it talk about how the British are fighting for better education on sex. their motto, "just said know."

[lilypad_567]

14. just said know

hey maybe we can start a organization just like the British call, "just said know," but maybe we will reword it a little, like "just said knowledge." if any of you guys have any idea, please write. also on planned parenthood, they are clebraing the FACE ACT, in which it protect the clinic from violence, and any other forms of abuse. just go to www.plannedparenthood.com
formore info.

[lilypad_567]

16. hey if you guys want to know info

then go to www.teenwire.com, go on to do, and click on animation, then click on Am I Normal? Behind the Fig Leaf, it gives you a lot of info. and you should also go on to www.plannedparenthood.com, and click on how someone can get pregnant.

[Mr_Spock]

15. Damned RW nut jobs are at it again

They are always trying to manipulate the story to favor their idiotic RW aganda. The only way to stop this is to vote these people out of office.

[muryan]

19. just site the harvard study

that was released a few weeks ago that showed that over half of the teens enrolled in abstinence only programs, broke their vow within in the first year. And a significant percent of those teens also became pregnant because they didnt use condoms or other contraception. The religious fundies have been trying to disprove and discredit this study for the past couple weeks but have failed miserably. Keep in mind, these abstinence only people are the same ones trying to keep the HPV virus vaccine from being FDA approved because saving lives is a bad thing if it might encourage their daughters to have sex.

[Lindacooks]

20. Right wing kooks are OBSESSED with the thought of

other people having sex. Probably because they're not getting any.

Seriously, though, they are simply consumed with sex. They see it everywhere. They think about it constantly. And they are simply outraged that anybody else is having sex! I don't know where they get the idea that their obsession matters to anybody else, but I think it's high time somebody called them on it.

[muryan]

22. they seem to forget that

humans have a body part that is almost exclusively used for sex. Small horrifying detail for them.

[987654321]

21. I think they know these abstinence only programs don't work

I just don't think they have the courage to admit it. So they keep disregarding the facts and try to silence those who will give them.

It's nothing less than a travesty that Souder's religious beliefs can dictate how a government health agency conducts its business. I worry because there are teens who still think that they won't get pregnant as long as a boy pulls out in time.

It is a fact that teens have difficulty with impulse control. They have yet to mature enough mentally and emotionally and science proves this. With that knowledge, the only responsible thing to do is to make sure they have all of the correct information to be safe in a moment of weakness. I think another thing to consider is that it is wrong to lie to a child just because you may consider the end result is worth it. Teens especially hate to be lied to and they lose faith in those they should be trusting. They rebel, and end up getting themselves into unsafe situations, like having unprotected sex.

[krispos42]

30. It's not a lack of courage to be wrong...

It's the fact that they are doing the Lord's work, and the Lord cannot be wrong. Therefore, they will continue to do the Lord's work.

Sadly, it really is that simple. The people who are Christians first and Americans, educators, and everything else second CANNOT help but use whatever tools are available to make people stop sinning against the Lord. Schools, courts, legislators, government enforcement agencies, whatever.

Remember, the true fundies are trying to save souls (as they see it). And if you are not doing the Lord's work, you are by default doing Satan's work. Therefore, they will do what they can to stop faithlessness and sin. They will convert heathens by example or by force. They will prey on the mentally weak or the emotionally vulnerable. It does not matter, for they are doing the Lord's work and saving souls.

It is also by example that they convert. Keeping up appearances is critical, so they must walk the walk and talk the talk, even if the path falls over a cliff. In many ways it is like the Iraqi Information Minister during the invasion. Check out http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/#quotes to see the attempts to make fiction reality by repetition.


We must also be aware that many, perhaps a large portion of the fundies are more concerned with the pursuit of personal, political, monetary, and social power. The power of the thumping Bible can be used easily toward those ends.

I had a personal experience with how unchristian, how anti-family Christians can be. I'm not going to bore the thread with it unless somebody asks, mostly because it still pisses me off, and almost cost me my son.

The purpose of sex ed is to inform the children about their bodies (gee, imagine that, kids actually knowing what their bodies do), and how to prevent disease transmission and pregnancy. And it would be nice if the kids knew how things worked in real life. So that the boy who has "urges" three times a day doesn't think he's a freak, or that the girls who get their periods don't think it's punishment from God.

If abstinence-only doesn't work, junk it. Damn, don't these fundies realize that kids being sexually active at 14 is historically normal? Only a few centuries ago kids were getting married and having families in the middle teens. It wasn't until people started having longer lifespans that the average marriage age went up. Let's face it, if you're almost certainly dead by forty you don't have a lot of time, especially with the high infant mortality rates of our ancestors. But our bodies still still follow the ancient rhythms, and we just can't fight it on a broad scale. No culture ever has. The "good old days" were simply times where people were forced by society to cover it up better.

[Vogon_Glory]

23. Right-Wing Ideologues And Empirical Evidence

Right-wing ideologues REFUSE to let their moralistic visions be clouded by unpleasant facts in general and the low success rate of "abstinence-only" curricula and virginity pledges.

It would be almost comical, were it not for the effects on tens or hundreds of thousands of young lives derailed by unplanned pregnancy, AIDS, and other venereal diseases.

I am coming to believe Republican Party meeting places ought to have large "bio-hazard" signs posted where passers-by can see them.

Abstinence is swell for those people who know themselves well enough to be able to make--and keep--such committments. Otherwise, abstinence-only cirriculae and virginity pledges are just more of the Radical Right's Voodoo Medicine.

[NJCher]

26. Get REAL witcher' self

I had a student give a speech on this topic earlier this spring. I was aghast about these abstinence programs and surprised I hadn’t read about them on DU before. According to my student, the name of one of the laws that authorizes these ridiculous programs is the “Personal Responsibility Act.” Can you believe it? Is that Republican enough for them?

OK, so get this: the response to these programs is called the REAL Act. The REAL Act would educate students about contraception and how to protect themselves from an STD and pregnancy.




Cher

[fortyfeetunder]

27. And when can contraception be discussed?

And by who?
Wait until marriage? :sarcasm: Certainly not before the wedding, the engaged couple is far more interested in the wedding colors and the honeymoon...

[NMMNG]

31. Never

Don't you know that birth control is evil, as purposely remaining childless goes against God's plan?

http://www.gender-news.com/other.php?id=23

[ladym55]

29. Abstinence only means abstaining only from birth control

Hello, folks. Kids are having sex and lots of it. Perhaps it just MIGHT make sense to help them behave with some semblence of responsibility. :sarcasm: This is so frustrating. And these figures are worse than I had been hearing. I had heard that those who took the abstinence pledge waited another 18 months--and then went out and had unprotected sex because they had no clue about contraception.

What really scares me is something I read recently (and now I don't remember where) that talked about the Christian Right moving toward eliminating ALL access to birth control for EVERYONE. The great mind interviewed in the article said that ALL forms of contraception were actually abortion and that men and women should ONLY have sex when they planned to have children--something about honoring "God's miracle" or some such nonsense. Wouldn't THAT be special!! I'm sure all those deeply religious husbands only want sex with their devoted wives once every few years. uh-huh. :grr: :banghead: