Using the presumptuous title “National Sexuality Education Standards,” a group of anti-abstinence “experts” have offered a questionable version of what, when, and how, topics regarding sexuality should be taught in American schools. The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) challenges these so-called “standards” that ignore the optimal health message for students, and instead place a priority on a simple risk reduction message. “When we set standards, we should communicate the ideal, the best message to achieve optimal health,” stated Valerie Huber, Executive Director of NAEA. “When a set of guidelines fails to provide any meaningful emphasis on optimal health but instead gives priority to ‘condom negotiation’ skills, we have not set standards; we have lowered them and put our children at increased risk” added Huber.

In addition, NAEA disputes the appropriateness of introducing sensitive and often controversial topics into the K-12 classroom, essentially using sex education guidelines as a vehicle for promoting ideological agendas rather than health and well-being. “Standards claiming national influence should maintain an objectivity that is devoid of special-interest agendas,” added Huber.

NAEA advocates for strong, clear Sexual Risk Avoidance programs as the best standard for educating youth regarding sexuality.

By Leigh Jones, World Magazine

Sexual activity and pregnancy among teens is declining

Two reports recently released by the Centers for Disease Control show teens are embracing abstinence, despite the prevalence of promiscuity portrayed in music, movies and on television.

Abstinence advocates say the new statistics on sexual activity and birth rates among teens are an encouraging sign that young people understand the risks associated with having sex, even though most of them have been taught that taking the right precautions makes it safe. The new numbers also disprove one of the main arguments used by advocates of sex education, said Cindy Hopkins, vice president for center services at Care Net, which operates pro-life pregnancy centers across the country.

“The message we hear from the other side is that teenagers cannot control their hormones, so they need to be taught about safe or safer sex,” she said. “It’s encouraging to know they can control themselves. When they hear the truth, they can assess it and make wise decisions.”

The increasing rates of abstinence also show teens are capable of making wise decisions even though many of the adults around them are sending them messages that normalize teen sex, said Valerie Huber, president of the National Abstinence Education Association.

According to a report on teen sexual activity released in October, the number of girls having sex between the ages of 15 and 19 dropped 8 percent between 1988 and 2010, from 51 percent to 43 percent. The number of boys having sex dropped 18 percent, from 60 percent to 42 percent.

The rates of abstinence were highest among 15- to 17-year-olds, with only 27 percent of girls and 28 percent of boys reporting sexual activity. In 1988, 37 percent of girls and 50 percent of boys in the same age range told researchers they already had started having sex.

Huber called the declines good news, especially for parents and mentors who encourage teens to wait.

“Abstinence is a life choice that is resonating with teens,” she said. “They are not ashamed of it. They are embracing it.”

Another report released earlier this month showed birth rates for teens also are declining. In 2010, the number of babies born to mothers between 15 and 19 years old dropped to the lowest level ever recorded in the United States, a 9 percent decrease from the previous year. Births to teens younger than 20 declined 10 percent, reaching the lowest level recorded since 1946.

Statistics released by the liberal Guttmacher Institute show a corresponding decline in abortions.

According to a report released last year, the number of teens who chose to terminate their pregnancies dropped 55 percent between 1988 and 2006, from 45 to 20 abortions per 1,000 women. But Hopkins warned those numbers might not show the full picture. More women are choosing medical abortions in the early stages of pregnancy, taking a pill to induce an abortion instead of going to a clinic for a surgical procedure, she said. Because medical abortions are universally acknowledged to be underreported, it’s hard to know for sure how many pregnancies are being terminated, she said.

Huber, who will spend Friday briefing lawmakers on a bill that would bring renewed emphasis and funding to abstinence education efforts, said the government’s own research proves that the current messaging about safe sex isn’t working. And the choices teens are making prove the message isn’t even relevant, Huber said.

“The current messaging, culturally and in sex ed classes, is one that normalizes teen sex,” she said. “It’s communicating that if everyone isn’t doing it, everyone will soon. But that’s not necessarily the case.”

Supporters for abstinence-based education are applauding a new report that sexual activity among teens is decreasing.

Nearly 70 percent of boys (68%) and girls (67%), ages 15-17, have never had sexual intercourse, according to a survey (2006-2008) released last week by the National Center for Health Statistics. In addition, 53 percent of boys and 58 percent of girls in the same age bracket have never had any type of sexual contact — up from 46 percent of boys and 49 percent of girls in 2002. The new study also shows that more young adults are choosing abstinence.

“It looks like truth is beginning to win the day when it comes to teens and sex,” responds ,Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association. “…I think [they] are beginning to learn that they need more than latex to protect themselves and they’re choosing to wait — [that’s] very good news.” And that data, she argues, renders “null and void” the typical claims by anti-abstinence advocacy groups that abstinence is unrealistic.

She tells OneNewsNow while trends are encouraging, she remains concerned. “…With Congress zeroing out all funds for community-based abstinence education programs, per the president’s request, I think we have to ask the question: who is supporting young people and these good decisions?” she wonders.

“With 170 programs around the country no longer able to provide the skills and the encouragement to those young people, it’s definitely time for us to take this data and make some policy corrections.”

Benefit being lost
Toward that end, young people from across America are meeting today with House and Senate members on Capital Hill, sharing how abstinence education has made a difference in their lives and urging lawmakers to reinstate federal funding for abstinence education. Huber contends that members of Congress are sending the wrong message to students by not giving federal priority to abstinence education.

“Are we encouraging them to engage in behaviors that are going to help them now and later? Or are we sending them messages that are detrimental on a number of different levels?” she asks. “…Right now we are using our federal dollars and our federal priorities in ways that are not helpful to them and, in fact, [are] counterproductive and harmful.”

The students are on Capitol Hill to make their message personal, says the abstinence advocate. “Here in Washington it can often become just a bantering of talking points over policy initiatives,” Huber acknowledges. “…What gets lost is the benefit of this program for young people. So they can put a real face and a real life story behind the need to change the priorities in the arena of sex education as a nation.”

She says while Congress is looking to tighten its fiscal belt, an investment in abstinence education could reap great economic, social, and personal rewards.