Inter Press Service - October 18, 2002
Katherine Stapp

Public school programmes teaching that "no sex is safe sex" have been around since 1996, when the Welfare Reform Act provided half a billion dollars for abstinence education. Teachers at schools with abstinence grants are strictly forbidden from answering questions about birth control or condom use.

"We don't talk about HIV/AIDS prevention except to say 'remain abstinent until marriage and once married, be monogamous with your spouse'," a teacher in Texas recently told Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Now, the administration of President George W. Bush is trying to hike spending on abstinence programmes by one-third, to 135 million dollars a year. The move follows through on a campaign promise Bush made in 1999 to "elevate abstinence education from an afterthought to an urgent goal".

Critics of abstinence-only education say they do not oppose urging teens to wait to have sex. But they believe it is critical that young people who do become sexually active know how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy or disease. It is hardly an academic debate.

In the United States last year 43 percent of girls and 49 percent of boys in high school had had sex at least once, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Young people ages 13-24 currently account for about 13 percent of all new HIV cases.

Girls younger than 20 years old are the hardest hit, making up 61 percent of new youth infections, the CDC says.

"The Bush administration wants to spend millions more dollars on abstinence-only programmes that put teenagers at higher risk for HIV," said Rebecca Schleifer, a HRW researcher who issued a report this month on abstinence education in Texas.

Many doctors and public health experts are also sceptical about the strategy. The American Medical Association, the Office of National AIDS Policy and the National Institutes of Health all recommend sex and HIV/AIDS education that includes discussion of condoms and other birth control methods.

Parents also appear to support comprehensive sex education in schools, and most are unaware that their children are not getting it, said Tamara Kreinin, president of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a New York group that opposes more funding for abstinence-only programmes.

SIECUS released a nationwide poll this month showing that 81 percent of lower-income parents - African American, Hispanic and white - support sex education programmes that teach young people about all aspects of sex and sexuality. The finding mirrors those of previous surveys by ABC and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

"This poll demonstrates that the proliferation of abstinence-only-until-marriage programmes across the nation is completely out of step with the parents and guardians of our nation's most vulnerable young people," said Kreinin.

Ninety-six percent of respondents of the SIECUS poll said it was important to talk to their children not just about basic reproductive facts, but about relationships and becoming sexually active, although many had not yet done so. "The results of this poll make it clear that parents and guardians may need more assistance than they think," Kreinin added.

Critics of abstinence-only programmes also complain that some of them actively promote misinformation about condoms - a scientifically proven way to prevent HIV transmission.

In Texas, which has the fourth largest population in the United States of people living with HIV/AIDS, taxpayer money is being used to finance a 'Truth for Youth' television and radio ad campaign suggesting that parents who tell their children to use condoms may be putting their lives at risk.

"For years, you've heard about 'safe sex'," the spot says. "The truth is that condoms will not protect people from many sexually transmitted diseases."

HRW says another publication disseminated to teenagers suggests that condoms may "seem" to prevent HIV, but HIV's "low infectivity", rather than condom use explains some of that purported effectiveness.

Sally Fleming, a Texas schoolteacher who feels the abstinence-only restrictions have left her "in a bad situation", told HRW: "Before McCAP (the local abstinence project), I could say, 'if you're not having sex, that's great. If you are, you need to be careful and use condoms. Boy, that went out the window'."

"As a health teacher, I don't believe in abstinence-until-marriage education, but I worry about breaking the rules," she added.

The programmes also stigmatise gay and lesbian teenagers, critics say, because they claim that sex outside of marriage "is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects".

In the U.S., gay couples are barred from marrying. "Teaching gay and lesbian youth that there is no safe way for them to have a sexual relationship - even when they become adults - only reinforces the hostile environment that many of them already experience at school," Schleifer said.

Some programmes also contain explicit religious messages, which would preclude them from receiving federal funds. The American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued the state of Louisiana to block state funding of abstinence projects that included staging plays with Jesus as a character featuring a chastity curriculum called 'God's Gift of Life'.

Kreinin has been travelling around the country urging parents and educators to oppose new funding for abstinence education. She is closely following the congressional budget debate on the issue, which may not be resolved until the end of the year.

"There's actually a lot of bipartisan opposition to increasing funding," she said. "But Bush is trying to close ranks. This is a major priority of the administration."

The secretary of health and human services (HHS) firmly supports the president.

"Abstinence education programmes create an environment within communities that supports teens in their decision to remain abstinent until marriage," HHS Administrator Tommy Thompson said recently, announcing 95 new federal grants worth 27.7 million dollars to promote such programmes. (END/IPS/HD/ED/HE/KS/AN/ML/02) .

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