Back in October, I wrote about the unintended impact of Robin Hayes' abstinence only agenda on teen pregnancy here in North Carolina.
There are plenty of reasons to consider Robin Hayes a disgusting and vile creature, but one reason very close to my heart has been largely unaddressed. Robin Hayes is personally responsible for thousands of teen pregnancies in North Carolina every year. Here's the story.
In the dark of night when the legislature was in session back in 1995, then Representative Robin Hayes introduced a bill requiring that public schools in North Carolina teach an abstinence-only sex education curriculum. Despite heated and stunningly uninformed debate, the House and the Senate passed the bill. Since the 1996-97 academic year, over 100 out of the 117 school systems in North Carolina have taught abstinence-only until marriage in their healthy living/sex education courses.
Hayes said his program will "put a moral compass back in the schools and get teens past these mixed messages and answer the question of teenage pregnancy." He would later state that "this is where welfare reform starts – with abstinence until marriage."
And what did Robin Hayes' misguided zealotry do for North Carolina adolescents? Just this:
In the wake of Hayes' spectacular stupidity, schools scrambled to come up with approaches to the new legislation. Some settled on pure abstinence-only. Others opted for "abstinence plus sex education."
In North Carolina the counties in which Abstinence-plus programs are used have experienced a greater decline than counties utilizing the Abstinence-only curriculum. And, according to a recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control, 75% of teens in North Carolina have intercourse prior to graduating from high school.
There is good news to report, however, because something remarkable is happening in states all across America. Responsible leaders are "just saying no" to George Bush's abstinence only funding.
The number of states spurning the money has grown even as Congress considers boosting overall funding for abstinence-only education to $204 million, with most of it going directly to community organizations.
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"This wave of states rejecting the money is a bellwether," said William Smith of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a Washington-based advocacy and education group that opposes abstinence-only programs. "It's a canary in the coal mine of what's to come."
Of course, abstinence-only ideologues will not give up, not on your life - or on the life of your teen-aged daughter. Undeterred by pesky facts, these zealots are scrambling to pressure states to reverse their decisions and stay with the program.
"We're talking about the health of millions of youth across the United States," said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. "We know abstinence education offers the best for them. Now is the time to put more emphasis on that message, not less."
Huber disputed criticism that the programs are ineffective or overly restrictive.
"Our critics would have governors believe that these programs are just somebody standing in front of the class wagging a finger and saying, 'No. No. No. Don't have sex.' That's not what these classes entail," Huber said. "They are holistic. They include relationship-building skills and medically accurate discussions of sexually transmitted diseases and contraception."
There's only one problem, Ms. Huber. Your holistic programs don't really work. Not only that, your holistic programs actually lead to higher rates of pregnancy among teens, not to mention higher rates of STDs, too.
It's time for North Carolina to join other responsible states in telling the federal government to keep their blood money.