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News From Capitol Hill:
Marching to Make a Difference
Each year, 900,000 women under 20 in the Unites States become pregnant, and 80 percent of these pregnancies are unintended. The Sierra Club advocates for policies and programs that have research supporting their effectiveness in reducing teen pregnancy. Research shows that comprehensive sex education programs discussing both abstinence and contraception can help teens to delay sexual activity, to use contraception and have fewer partners once they become sexually active. Unfortunately, abstinence-only is the only sex education program supported with federal tax dollars. This prescribed restrictive curricula censors discussion about contraceptives. In December 2004, Congressman Henry Waxman of California took the lead in issuing a report that shocked its every reader. The report, titled The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, found that taxpayer money was being used to blatantly lie and mislead young people unfortunate enough to be exposed to federally supported abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. It was a major story on the 24-hour news channels and in papers across the country, tapping into a just outrage that has been building over the quarter-century long federally-led building of this industry. For example, the report found that young people were being told that "exposure to sweat and tears [are] risk factors" for transmitting HIV and that condoms fail "approximately 31% of the time" in preventing the transmission of HIV during heterosexual sex. There were also many examples where traditional gender stereotypes were perpetuated, many of which best belong in the 18th century, not the 21st. For example, "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on relationships [and] men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments." Perhaps the worst part about these programs is what's not in the report: medically accurate information about contraception and its use (because it is totally missing from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs). In its place we see scare tactics, the undermining of confidence in contraception, misinformation and the outright omission of information. For many of us, this might be the first time we are learning about this issue. After all, teaching young people about abstaining from sex isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, groups that want young people to get the full range of information - from abstinence to relationships and contraception -- also teach extensively about the value of abstinence. But what the federal government is spending taxpayer money on today is a very different breed, teaching young people that all sexual activity outside of marriage is abnormal and that marriage is the only appropriate context for sexual activity. In 2005, the federal government will spend $168 million on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. And now, the Bush Administration is engaged in an enterprise to export similar types of programs overseas, to countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS and to the tune of nearly one billion dollars over the next five years. Our young people - and the young people the world over - deserve better. They deserve the type of sexuality-education backed by science and the leading public health institutions in the US and around the world. They deserve a comprehensive approach to sexuality-education and prevention programs that tell the whole story, not just a horribly mangled jumble of misinformation that passes the ideological purity test but jeopardizes health, happiness and well-being. What advocates working the halls of Capitol Hill most often hear from Members of Congress is that they never hear from their constituents on this issue. If we hope to force policymakers to defend our young people and use our taxpayer money wisely, we need to let them know that we do not support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. You can go to www.nonewmoney.org and send an e-mail to your elected representatives in three clicks of a mouse and just a few moments time.
You can make a difference on this issue. Moreover, we need your help. We cannot do it without the assistance of activists and citizens across the country. For more information on how you can help support comprehensive sexuality-education and counter abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, go to www.siecus.org.
Money image courtesy of SEICUS
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