Sex Education: Another Bush Administration Fund Misallocation

In 1999, Congress allocated federally funded grants totaling $80 million for the teaching of abstinence-only sex education. These grants were given to a variety of religious, civic and medical organizations that would meet the eligibility requirements of limiting the discussion of contraception to failure rates. In 2005, the Bush Administration proposed that $270 million should be allocated to these programs. Congress reduced this amount down to $168 million, thus raising the total funding to $900 million in a five-year period. This is your tax dollars at work with the following curriculum being taught in these types of programs: abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, half of gay male teenagers in the US have been infected with HIV, touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy, a 43 day old fetus is a "thinking person", HIV can spread by sweat and tears, and condoms fail 31% of the time to prevent the transmission of HIV.

We, as a nation, are talking about $900 million over five years in federal aid to support the programs called Title V, Section 510. A study funded by the government was released in April of 2007, conducted by a non-partisan research group called Mathematica Policy Research Inc. This was a study that followed kids in four specific areas with different approaches in educational styles over a four to six year span. The study was extremely detailed and valued the data received from students in the programs and a control group of children. The results for this study were what I would have expected them to be, and didn't favor the irrational idea, held by the Bush Administration and many others, especially the Christian Right groups, that teaching abstinence only would prevent teens from becoming sexually active, . This lack of common sense and scientific fact on the Bush Administration's part became even more apparent in July of 2007, when the Surgeon General serving from 2002 to 2006, Richard Carmona, came forward with the information that the White House insisted for political reasons (or religious reasons?) that he needed to ignore the actual facts of sex education in favor of focusing only on abstinence.

The curriculum is as follows for Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act, P.L. 104-193: has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity; teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children; teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems; teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity; teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects; teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society; teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increase vulnerability to sexual advances, and teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity. As you can see, these are nothing more that scare tactics that aren't working. While some are things that should be taught with a comprehensive sex education class, others are ridiculous.

The American view of sexuality is extremely repressed. We, as parents, don't want our children exposed to the act of sex, sexual innuendos or sexual situations. This is completely understandable with the rampant spread of sexually transmitted diseases and an increase in teen pregnancy. We panic as soon as we start to see any type of sexual behaviors from our children, even something as innocent as wondering where babies come from. Some over-exuberant church's answer is, "Babies come from God", while others either change the subject, tell them that they are too young and to ask later, and the brave parents attempt to explain a complicated subject.

The truth is, sex is a natural part of the human psyche and a biological impulse and necessity, otherwise we wouldn't have continued as a species. As parents, we need to understand this, and we also need remember what it was like for us as teenagers. If, for some reason, you may have been abnormal, and you have teenage children, please watch a selection of independent films that may assist you with your teenagers. Whether you have boys or girls, all teenagers relate to The Breakfast Club or any John Hughes movies. For girls, the movie Thirteen is a wise choice, especially for mothers trying to bridge the gap with their daughters. These movies are realistic portrayals of teenage life and experiences. Once we have accepted that sex is natural, and eventually it's going to be experienced by our children, the best thing that we can do as parents is to encourage abstinence and teach our children how to be safe if they do choose to have sex.

The idea that, "Babies come from God", is a wonderful thought, and religious belief, however, this concept doesn't do much for a young teenage mother, who is wondering how God had impregnated her. The study that was conducted showed that there needs to be a combined curriculum for sex education classes. The abstinence only approach doesn't work by itself, nor does the traditional scare tactic of pregnancy and disease. Of the children that went through the abstinence only education, most of them ended up having sex by the time they were out of high school. These students were also the students that didn't understand the concept of contraception or condoms to prevent diseases. The conclusion of this study stated the raw statistics, "One-quarter of sexually active adolescents nationwide have an STD, and many STDs are lifelong viral infections with no cure. Findings from this study speak to the continued need for rigorous research on how to combat the high rate of teen sexual activity and its negative consequences." We need to teach our children that there are consequences to their actions, and what actions cause them. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that attempting to suppress a natural urge is a bad idea. Look at the Priest being accused on sexually molestation. These men have suppressed their sexual nature in the name of religion, and look at how they ended up. To overly indulge in sexual behaviors has an equally terrible result, there must be a happy medium. '

We at least owe it to our children to give them something better than lies and propaganda. Maybe something a little more truthful and scientific. Give them some facts like: condoms only fail to prevent pregnancy and STDs less than 3% of the time when used properly and consistently, the HIV can't be spread by sweat and tears, and that fertility is not affected by elective abortion. Facts are what's going to save our children, not these abstinence only programs. According to the latest CDC data, a whopping 61% of high school seniors are have had sex, and Columbia University researchers found that the teenagers that take the abstinence and virginity pledges wait longer to have sex, but 88% can't keep their pledges and engage in premarital sex. However, teen pregnancy is down from previous years, but it doesn't look like it's from taking these abstinence only classes, it looks like it's from teens understanding that a condom and other birth control methods are a good idea.

The question remains however, why would the Bush Administration, knowing that there is no scientific evidence that the abstinence only programs and being told that this wouldn't work, still carry on? What were his political reasons to waste that much money on something that has been proven not to work? Were the so-called political reasons really religious ones? This looks like just another one of the Bush Administration's selfish personal agendas that are costing the American people millions. When is enough going to be enough?