Conservatives fire salvo at sex-education liberals

LexisNexis ^ | 06.24.07 | CHRISTOPHER LEE,

[Coleus]

Liberal critics periodically complain that federally funded "abstinence only" sex-education materials are full of false or misleading statements about the effectiveness of condoms and other issues. Now the Bush administration is firing back, charging that programs that endorse condom use also are marred by imbalance and inaccuracies.

The latest round in the sex-ed culture war comes in a 40-page report by the Department of Health and Human Services that critiqued "comprehensive sex-education curricula" - materials that teach about both abstinence and the use of condoms and other protective methods. The analysis - requested two years ago by Sen. Tom Coburn, Okla., and former senator Rick Santorum, Pa., both conservative Republicans - concluded that nine widely used curricula contained misleading statements about condom failure, focused too little on abstinence and were only marginally successful in persuading young people to use condoms or, better yet, to delay having sex.

"This study shows that very little of the message is around abstinence," said Harry Wilson, an associate commissioner in HHS's Administration on Children, Youth and Families. "When it comes to what they actually do in their curricula, this shows that it is kind of given the short end of the stick."

One curriculum, Safer Choices Level 1, mentioned condoms 383 times and abstinence only five, the report said. But Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, the California-based nonprofit organization that developed the curriculum, said the materials make the same point with different language, using phrases such as "choosing not to have sex" or "saying no to sex."

"It's all about abstinence; it's just different words," Kirby said. "There's twice as much material in this curriculum on abstinence than on condoms and contraception." HHS spends about $176 million a year on abstinence education

[jjm2111]

What a stupid waste of taxpayer dollars. Kids will only learn the right lessons about sex from their parents, and sometimes indirectly from church.

If a child lives in a family with parents who don’t emphasize abstinence or at the very worst, contraception, a little brochure given once during someone’s education will do nothing against the steady stream of: sex sex sex SEX SEX given out by the mass media and popular culture.

[Disambiguator]

...Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, the California-based nonprofit organization that developed the curriculum, said the materials make the same point with different language, using phrases such as "choosing not to have sex" or "saying no to sex."

"It's all about abstinence; it's just different words," Kirby said. "There's twice as much material in this curriculum on abstinence than on condoms and contraception."

Oh, the horror of telling children not to have sex! These people are sickening.