Censorship of Sex Education No. 154
These programs don't just encourage abstinence; they prevent students from getting information that is vital to their health and lives. For example, they prevent safer-sex messages in relation to condoms and contraception is eliminated. Materials about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual orientation have been razored out from textbooks. Teachers have been threatened with discipline for answering students' questions on certain subjects.
Censored sex education has proven time and time again not to prevent risky sexual behavior. The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. In fact, students who participate in abstinence-only classes do not abstain from intercourse longer than others. When they do become sexually active, though, they often fail to use condoms or other contraceptives. The "approach places policy in direct conflict with science and ignores overwhelming evidence that other programs would be effective," according to world leaders in AIDS research and prevention.
The abstinence-only education program was reauthorized in 2002. ADA actively opposed its reauthorization. For the fiscal year 2005, the proposed budget for community-based abstinence education more than doubles from the 2004 levels to a total of $186 million. Total funding for all abstinence-only education has more than doubled as well, to $273 million. ADA opposes this increased funding for abstinence-only education programs.
ADA actively opposes sex education that teaches abstinence as the only option. ADA supports the funding of comprehensive sex education which provides students with a wide range of health care information and options and which permits teachers to respond to students' questions. Furthermore, ADA supports holistic programs for teens that build self-awareness, self-esteem and self-confidence.
ADA deplores the Bush Administration's attempts to prevent an international consensus among 180 nations on a global plan of action to promote children's well-being and rights by opposing sexuality education for teens at the U.N. Children's Summit.
In a flagrant triumph of politics over science, an official government web site has removed accurate medical information and substituted Bush Administration-approved misinformation. Two examples:
ADA opposes the elevation of conservative ideology over scientific knowledge at the expense of the health and safety of women and children worldwide.
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