Posted on 03/13/2004 12:07:51 PM PST by Jean S
NEW YORK (AP) - As President Bush seeks to double funding for abstinence-only education, skeptics are urging closer scrutiny of the grant recipients - many of them religious and anti-abortion groups which in the past did not operate extensively in public schools. Instructors from such groups already have been appearing at hundreds of schools across the nation, supported by state and federal funds. They teach a curriculum that excludes information about "safe sex" and exhorts young people to be chaste until marriage.
Bush, while trying to cut spending on many other domestic programs, has proposed doubling abstinence-education funding to $270 million for the coming fiscal year. "Abstinence for young people is the only certain way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases," he said in his State of the Union speech.
Supporters of the program are elated at the growing opportunities to spread the abstinence message, and counter societal trends that they believe are encouraging teenage promiscuity.
Critics argue that abstinence-only education is an unproven concept that deprives adolescents of crucial information about condoms and other contraceptives. Much of the grant money, they contend, is being allocated on ideological grounds, rewarding groups in line with the president's moral views without regard for the programs' results.
"These programs do not work," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, which promotes comprehensive sex education. "You have to wonder if doubling the budget, during an election year, is a form of patronage for supporters of the administration."
Dr. Alma L. Golden, who helps oversee abstinence education as a deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said it is not surprising that anti-abortion groups and others with relatively conservative social views would enlist in the programs.
The important thing, from her perspective, is that the groups' work is valuable.
"I can tell you that the people I work with are very diverse," she said. "Much of their passion and motivation is derived from the fact they don't want kids to make bad choices."
According to the New York-based Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), more than $800 million in federal and state funds has been spent on abstinence-only education, most of it under the Bush administration.
"Basically, they have created an industry, and they certainly are rewarding their friends," said SIECUS spokeswoman Adrienne Verrilli.
Recipients of the grants include universities, hospitals and school districts, as well as many local religious organizations and anti-abortion groups. Among the 28 most recent recipients are six crisis pregnancy centers, whose core mission is trying to dissuade pregnant women from having abortions.
One such pregnancy center that has branched into abstinence education is A Women's Concern of Boston, recipient of a $488,000 grant that it hopes will be repeated for two more years. Its Healthy Futures abstinence program has boosted its staff from two to 12, and made presentations to about 2,300 students in 24 schools, according to program director Rebecca Ray.
While some states - such as North Carolina - have endorsed abstinence-only education as a statewide policy, this is not the case in Massachusetts.
"Most of the schools we work with have someone else to teach comprehensive sex education, so our coming in doesn't mean the students aren't getting that," Ray said. "We're dealing with kids who are mostly sexually active already, but almost without exception, they are at least respectful about what we're saying."
A Women's Concern, like many of the abstinence fund recipients, was founded as a Christian mission. However, Ray said the Healthy Futures curriculum complies with HHS rules by avoiding any religious content.
The same rules apply to the many Catholic-affiliated groups getting abstinence grants.
"We can't talk at all about the religious underpinnings," said Mary Laurie, who coordinates abstinence education for a Catholic Charities branch in New York's Schuyler County.
"So we talk about sex as its portrayed in society, in the media," Laurie said. "Society is sending young people the message that sex is OK, so they have to hear the other side from somewhere."
Critics of abstinence-only education won a lawsuit two years ago in Louisiana challenging the use of religion in programs there. And many critics contend that serious problems persist even in scrupulously secular programs - such as exaggerated claims of condoms' unreliability, use of outdated gender stereotypes, and alienation of gay and lesbian youths due to the emphasis on sex within a heterosexual marriage.
Assessment of the programs is a major source of contention. U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat and leading critic of abstinence-only education, says the evaluation criteria used by HHS "appear designed to make abstinence-only programs look good - not to measure their actual effectiveness."
He was referring to HHS criteria which ask the abstinence programs to assess changes in students' attitudes but not changes in behavior.
HHS officials have hired a private research firm to conduct a more comprehensive review of 11 abstinence programs; findings may be available later this year. But Leslee Unruh, president of National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., cautioned that measuring program results is "extremely difficult."
"You have parents who don't want their children asked graphic sexual questions," Unruh said. "A lot of these programs are in their infancy, and they're being put under this scrutiny instead being allowed to find out for themselves what works."
Golden, of HHS, said at least 50, and possibly 100 or more, different curricula are used in federally funded programs. Criticism of the initiatives has sparked an improvement in educational material and new strategies for measuring results, she said.
"You can't necessarily get data by asking teens what their behavior is - some school districts prohibit that," Golden said. "So we're looking for some secondary indicators that the programs are effective - births by women under 19, STDs reported in the county."
Both sides in the debate claim public opinion is on their side.
Abstinence-only advocates say a large majority of parents believe abstinence is the best choice for their teens. Backers of comprehensive sex education say most parents want their children taught about contraception and safe sex, as well as abstinence.
Similarly, statistics provide ammunition for both sides. The nation's teen pregnancy rate has been declining, but surveys indicate that roughly 50 percent of teens have sex before they leave high school, and young people 15 to 24 account for about half the new cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States each year.
Said Susanne Martinez, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's vice president for public policy: "The only thing that will decrease with more abstinence-only education is the safety of our teens."
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On the Net:
Advocates for Youth: http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/
National Abstinence Clearinghouse: http://www.abstinence.net/
AP-ES-03-13-04 1445EST
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