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060197 Sex-ed group attacks abstinence education program
By Cheryl Wetzstein
As the federal government prepares to release additional funds for abstinence-only education, a powerful sex-education group based in New York is urging states to reject the money.
"SIECUS :s advice to states is similar to what many people want to tell teen-agers. Abstain. Arid if you're not going to abstain, act responsibly," officials with the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States said in its April-May SIECUS Report.
A survey by The Washington Times of 16 states found that 13 are planning to apply for the money. Three of the 16 states were undecided.
Congress authorized $50 million a year in the new welfare law for educational programs that have the "exclusive purpose" of teaching the social, psychological and health wins to be realized by abstaining Crony sexual activity.
The money comes through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and requires a $3 state match for every $4 from the federal government. States have to apply for the money by July 15.
The SIECUS Report told states that if they reject the abstinence money, they "will make a very important statement" that they don't want to "waste scarce federal and state dollars for ineffective abstinence-only programs."
Last week. Focus on the Family, a traditional-values group in Colorado Springs, lambasted SIECUS and the "sex education lobby" for trying to "subvert" abstinence education.
"Twenty years of training teens in contraceptive use has been an "absolute failure," and "safe sex" is a myth, the group said.
Now, instead of helping teens make better choices, "we are seeing an orchestrated effort to squash new ideas, hijack abstinence funding and continue the failed policies of the past," Focus said.
The Times' survey of 16 states revealed that while most are planning to apply for the money, SIECUS' warning that abstinence only education is ineffective and based on inaccurate data and "fear" has resonated in some state offices.
"They seem to be pretty rigid guidelines," said Kevin Sullivan, spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
Connecticut, he added, has not decided to apply for its $330,484 federal abstinence-education grant. "We're still weighing some of the issues that are involved," he said.
"You'll have to put us in the undecided column," said Dana Sullivan, spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services. New Jersey's $543,071 grant is being "actively discussed," lie said.
In California, where the biggest portion of the abstinence money $5.7 million - would go, the issue is "on hold," pending legislative action, said Lynda Frost, spokes woman for the state's Department of Health Services.
Gov. Pete Wilson's administration is very interested in obtaining the grant, she said, but state legislators want to be heard both on abstinence policy and how the federal money would be matched.
Of the 13 states that told The Times they were planning to seek the grant, several - including Massachusetts, Kentucky and Michigan - said they would use at least a portion of the grant on media campaigns, including billboards and public-service announcements.
Maryland and Louisiana will likely use the funds to boost after school programs, possibly adding programs that teach teens how to reject sexual advances, health officials said.
Florida has been using an abstinence-based program called "Postponing Sexual Involvement" with success and may use some grant money to expand that program, said Donna Barber, director of the state's
Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Texas has sent out thousands of letters seeking responses to the grant, and Mississippi has already collected 40 proposals from groups on how to spend its money
With only six weeks left to make a decision, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado and Ohio are just beginning to collect information, officials said.
To raise the profile of veteran abstinence-education groups that are not well known outside their states, the Medical Institute for Sexual health (MISII) is organizing an abstinence conference in Washington July 31 to Aug. 1.
The conferences goal is "to just bring people together under one roof and share information and get a unity of purpose," MISII founder and president Dr. Joe S. Mcllhaney said recently.
lben birthrates have dropped slightly in recent years but remain at historically high levels, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 1997 Kids Count Book.