Posted on 10/05/2005 7:44:15 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), seemingly bent on eliminating religion, tradition and values from the public square, recently announced its new enemy: abstinence-only education.
Declaring abstinence programs “dangerous,” the ACLU launched its “Not in My State” program to eliminate abstinence curricula from school districts in 18 states.
Citing a widely discredited December 2004 report by Rep. Harry Waxman (D-California), the ACLU asserts that abstinence programs discriminate against homosexuals, threaten the health and safety of kids and are excessively connected with religious ideology.
So-called ACLU “experts” have firmly closed their minds to the overwhelming evidence that shows the effectiveness of abstinence education.
CWA’s Director of Government Relations, Lanier Swann, has lobbied on Capitol Hill for abstinence funding: “I urge school officials not to let the ACLU keep them from doing what’s best for the children. Ask parents what they think,” she says, “and remember, the ACLU does not speak for America, and it certainly doesn’t speak for all parents. In a recent Zogby poll, 90 percent of parents said they support abstinence education for their children, and local school systems would do well to heed their call.”
A recent report by the Heritage Foundation found that sexually active teens are much more likely to be depressed, commit suicide and contract sexually transmitted diseases. Young girls who are sexually active are highly likely to become pregnant out of wedlock, have an abortion, become single mothers and end up poor. The report also found that girls who became sexually active between the ages of 13 and 14 were half as likely as those who did not have sex to be involved in stable marriages in their 30’s.
A strong example of the impact of abstinence-only programs is Best Friends, which utilizes peer support. A Lerner study showed that girls who participated in Best Friends were 52 percent less likely to smoke, 90 percent less likely to use drugs, 60 percent less likely to drink alcohol and 80 percent less likely to have sex than their peers who did not participate in the program.
An Adolescent and Family Health study in 2003 found that a 67 percent drop in teen pregnancy among 15- to 19-year-olds resulted from the decline in sexual activity.
Not only have abstinence education programs proven effective and beneficial, they have done so with limited funding. President Bush, a great supporter of abstinence funding, called for $250 million for it in 2005, but Congress approved only $168 million; $653 million will be spent on condom-based education.
Clearly, the ACLU overlooks or ignores this information.
“The way the liberal left flails about in their efforts to destroy abstinence education would cause one to think abstinence educators are literally swimming in funding,” says CWA’s Swann. “It is a shame we are now distracted by fighting to protect what little funding we have rather than aiming all our efforts at bringing abstinence to a more level playing field with the other side.”
The bottom line is that illicit sex permeates our culture and poses real dangers for teens. No one can deny that these young people face emotional, physical, economical and relational challenges. If young people hold the future, they should be allowed to make informed decisions about how sex will impact their futures. We must not let the ACLU take that away from them.
With the futures of so many children on the line, the stakes are too high to let another ACLU victory further destroy our next generation.
Take action: CWA urges parents in the following states to call or write your local school boards. These states are targeted by the ACLU’s campaign against abstinence. It is vital that the voices of concerned parents be heard above the ACLU’s attempts to strip abstinence funding. Contact your local school board today!
States Targeted by the ACLU’s Campaign to Reject Funding for Abstinence Education: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wyoming.
Roger Baldwin (a co-founder of the ACLU)
I've heard a lot of conflicting information about the effectiveness of abstinance only sex ed. Does anyone have a (relatively) non-partisan source of data on this? Since both sides are passionate about it, I'm reluctant to trust studies that have links to either left or right publications.
what you dont have your OWN opinion on this? Gesh, its so simple.
A hundred forty years or so ago the ACLU would have periodically found one of its lawyers suspended by the neck from the high limbs of tall trees...
Re: The Title...you must be kidding...
Great movie came out a while back, Fog of War, a long interview with Robert MacNamara. One of the major points lessons that he expounded on in the film was, "Get the Data".
Until I have the data, it's damn near impossible for me to form an opinion about this sort of issue.
Wouldn't it be easier to ask "What is right with the ACLU?"
I'll go with Shakespeare: "First, lets kill all of the lawyers..."
has anything good ever come from a Baldwin?
The article would certainly be a lot shorter...
LOL!!!! These morons have truly gone off the deep end. It's discrimination against homosexuals to promote NOT having ANY sex? It would sound just as valid, if not more so, if they said that abstinence was discrimination against sheep.
I thought every Freeper knew the answer to that!
Roger Baldwin, the co-founder of the ACLU said: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately, for abolishing the state itself. … I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the properties class, and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal. I don’t regret being part of the communist tactic. I knew what I was doing. I was not an innocent liberal. I wanted what the communists wanted and I traveled the United Front road to get it.” In spite of Baldwin’s Communist leanings, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 16, 1981.
Baldwin didn’t create the ACLU in a vacuum, he had plenty of help. A group of Communist Party officials, fellow travelers, anarchists and radicals joined Baldwin to found the ACLU in 1920.
I'm waiting for the ACLU to sue to get murder legalized on the grounds that the laws against murder are rooted in primitive Theocratic legal codes, but that they won't do. Their whole spiel is that "you don't need G-d" to tell you that murder should be against the law (it's only sexual sins that disappear with the "death of G-d," apparently). And if they did that, what basis would they have for the laws they advocate to abolish inequality and social justice (apparently equally reprehensible as murder to the non-Theistic mind).
What is right with the ALCU?
The ACLU is a racist organization that wants to remove minorities by "loving" them to death.
They advance their desire for the destruction of non-whites by a 2-pronged attack on Persons Of Coloe:
1. Endorsing sex as a recreational sport and banking on STDs killing them
2. Endorsing and supporting abortion as an ex-pos-factos birth control solution. We know that literally millions of black and latino babies have been killed this way (out of proportion to the white population but I don't have the links handy).
This has worked somewhat well. The current attack is on the Latino population's Catholic tendency to avoid abortion. Just watch. By the time the ACLU is done, there will be abortion clinic pamphlets requred at every Mass.
The ACLU is the KKK in different sheets.
One notable success of abstinence programs is the ABC program in Uganda, which has proved effective at limiting the spread of HIV. ABC = Abstinence Before marriage, else use a Condom. But condoms are hard to come by in rural Africa, so it's really the abstinence part of the message that explains the success of the program. Ugandans are aware of the danger of promiscuity, and they have responded with changes in behavior: while the HIV infection rate in some locations in sub-Saharan Africa among adults is close to 40%, Uganda has an 11% infection rate. Uganda has avoided the apocalyptic scale of the pandemic that other countries in the region are experiencing.
Why can't you just use your own common sense? Do you think you were mature enough at all up and through high school to be having sex, even though you could perhaps, and that's a huge IF, prevent a pregnancy or STD? Some people don't think that shame has any place in America and I think from my own experience how wrong that is. I have seen girls in my school talked about who had a REPUTATION, even though it may have been only one sexual encounter, well what a SLUT. And nowadays, some thirty years later? Just ask your own kids if you have any. If not, I'll tell you, they are cruel, merciless, absolutely mean beyond anything you probably ever saw. Its mind-boggling. Some high school kids will do or say anything to hurt others, and this type of thing just provides more amunition. I have nothing to offer you except my own anedotal evidence, but I'm sure if you did a little research you will find out why a lot of these kids who become sexually active get very depressed and even suicidal, especially if they are girls. Lets not mention the fact that if you are a boy and get a girl pregnant and she chooses to kill the baby (your baby) there's not a damn thing you can do about it
Well since Booby Strange said it and he has never been wrong, it is okay.
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