ACLU: Stopping Abstinence-Only Sex Education

7/30/2009 Listen as Phyllida Burlingame, the sex education policy director for the ACLU of Northern California, explains why getting rid of abstinence-only sex education is a good thing. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to end funding for abstinence-only sex education. The proposal now heads to the Senate.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

President Obama recently released his proposed budget for 2010. He plans to cut programs deemed unnecessary or wasteful, including federal support for abstinence-only sex education, which is good.  

Research has shown, again and again, that  lecturing young people to "just say no to sex before marriage" does not prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. It merely denies students important information they need to be safe and healthy.  

Even worse, abstinence only education uses medically inaccurate information--lies--to scare students. For example, by saying  that HIV can pass through a latex condom--a claim  that physicians and scientists know to be false.  

But eliminating the federal dollars behind abstinence only education won't rid our schools of it. We need to do that, together, in school communities throughout the Bay Area.  

The problems with abstinence-only education go beyond flawed science. These curricula are rife with gender stereotypes. Students are told girls are responsible for controlling the sexual behavior of boys, and that boys are libido machines with no internal "off" switch.  One curriculum tells girls: "Watch what you wear. If you don't aim to please, don't aim to tease."

By suggesting that any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage is harmful, these programs are also biased against gays, lesbians, and all sexually active single and divorced adults.

Comprehensive sex education takes a different approach. It asserts that our sexuality is an integral part of who we are as human beings, and it helps young people make healthy decisions, and communicate clearly with potential sexual partners. It provides them with information about condoms and contraception that they'll need when they become sexually active, and it helps them to delay sexual activity until they know they're physically and emotionally ready.

Thanks to a law that the ACLU worked hard to pass in 2003, SB 71, California law already requires that sex education be comprehensive--yet abstinence-only education is still being taught in many districts here in the Bay Area.  

Earlier this year, activist parents in Fremont played a key role in convincing the school district to replace an abstinence only curriculum with a comprehensive one.   

At a time when schools are so short of resources, and so many young people have STDs and unintended pregnancies, the last thing we need is for our schools to waste money on ineffective and inaccurate abstinence-only sex education.  

Like the parents in Fremont, we need to speak out at our local schools and in our communities to make abstinence only education a thing of the past.  We can make this change happen.

Phyllida Burlingameis the Sex Education Policy Director with the ACLU of Northern California.