Views on Sex-Ed Divide Democratic, GOP Candidates
Run Date: 11/26/07
By Alison Bowen
WeNews correspondent
November 30, 2007
<http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3396>
The U.S. has spent about $1 billion on abstinence-only
education in the last decade and the White House seeks
$28 million more. Here's how presidential candidates
line up on the issue.
(WOMENSENEWS)--An end to abstinence-only sex education
was at the top of the list when 600 self-described
feminists met in New York recently to rally their ranks
and craft a platform for U.S. presidential lobbying.
Abstinence-only--for which President Bush proposes a
2008 budget of $204 million--has avid supporters and
wary detractors, who want to find a more comprehensive
way to present sex education.
In March, three members of Congress introduced a bill to
authorize federal funds for states' comprehensive sex
education that offers menu of options from abstinence to
contraception and abortion. The Responsible Education
About Life Act--or the REAL Act as the bill is known--
was sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J.; Rep.
Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Rep. Christopher Shays, R-
Conn.
The following month a congressional study found that
abstinence-only education--which emphasizes chastity, or
abstaining from sex, as the best practice for teens--did
not significantly delay their decisions whether to have
sex.
Over a dozen states have dodged abstinence-only
curricula for their schools by declining the funds that
mandate it.
On Nov. 14 Virginia became the latest when Gov. Timothy
M. Kaine's proposed budget eliminated the $275,000
matching grant that is part of the federal funding.
Plenty of GOP boosters remain on Capitol Hill, however.
In the wake of President Bush's Oct. 3 veto of the State
Children's Health Insurance Program--the low-cost health
insurance for families who don't qualify for Medicaid
but can't afford private insurance--some Democratic
advocates of SCHIP tried to sweeten it for Republicans
by attaching a $28 million increase in abstinence
funding. That effort failed, but it showed the extent to
which abstinence funding is viewed as a potent
bipartisan bargaining.
Philosophical Tug of War
For nearly a decade, since Bush increased funding for
abstinence programs that were by and large introduced
during Bill Clinton's administration, the philosophical
struggle over sex education has been between an
abstinence-only approach and comprehensive sex-ed.
Out of that tug of war, compromisers have for a couple
of years been promoting a middle way: "abstinence-plus,"
which mentions abstinence within a broader discussion of
safe sex.
Programs combining both abstinence and contraception
were most effective, a Nov. 7 study by the Washington-
based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy reported, echoing Virginia Gov. Kaine's
reasons for declining abstinence-only funding.
But abstinence-plus by no means pleases everyone.
In 2004 the Heritage Foundation, the Washington think
tank, warned that abstinence instruction comprises only
about 5 percent of abstinence-plus curricula. In
authentic abstinence curricula, that figure should be 54
percent, the report said.
Abstinence advocates argue that studies pinpointing
abstinence-only education as a failure surveyed children
too young to understand the message and didn't reach a
large enough sample of abstinence programs.
Few of the presidential candidates have said much yet
about any of this, and few in the news media have asked
on the campaign trail.
Here's what can be said about their positions so far.
Democrats
* Joe Biden supports "age-appropriate" and
comprehensive sex education but the Delaware
senator has also voted to fund abstinence
programs.
* Hillary Clinton has favored abstinence-plus for a
decade. In 1996 as first lady she helped launch
the teen pregnancy campaign, which has a goal of
reducing teen pregnancy by one-third by 2015
through comprehensive education and awareness. Ten
years later, as New York senator, she introduced
the Prevention First Act, which would have
allocated $100 million for family planning
services in an effort to curb teen pregnancy.
* Chris Dodd's Web site says the Connecticut senator
is "appalled" by the Bush administration's
abstinence-only programs.
* John Edwards promotes comprehensive sex education
according to his Web site. The former North
Carolina senator's campaign did not return phone
calls.
* Mike Gravel, former senator from Alaska, said he
favored comprehensive sex education in a
questionnaire he returned to the Washington-based
Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group.
* Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is the only presidential
candidate who is a co-sponsor of the Responsible
Education About Life Act that emphasizes
comprehensive programs.
* Illinois Sen. Barack Obama introduced the
Communities of Color Teen Pregnancy Prevention Act
of 2007 in Illinois. He respects abstinence as a
choice but also advocates age-appropriate
comprehensive sex education.
* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson favors abstinence-
plus.
Republicans
* Rudi Giuliani, the only Republican candidate still
waffling about his pro-choice stance, avoids the
topic. He talks about increasing adoptions and
decreasing abortions but is mum on sex education.
As New York City mayor for eight years, he
presided over a major free condom distribution
campaign that included public schools. A campaign
spokesperson says Giuliani's stance can be
compared to what he says about education in
general: "The enforcer of standards should . . .
be the parent."
* John McCain promotes abstinence-only programs but
the Arizona senator has previously promoted
comprehensive sex education.
* Mitt Romney promoted abstinence education in
Massachusetts classrooms as governor of that state
from 2003 to 2007. Romney mentioned this in the
May South Carolina debates to show his credentials
as a "clear and consistent conservative." Alex
Burgos, a campaign staffer, said Romney believes
schools should "promote abstinence as part of
their health curriculum and teach that marriage
comes before babies." Romney, however, checked a
box saying he supported comprehensive sex
education in a 2002 Planned Parenthood candidate
survey.
* Fred Thompson, former Tennessee senator, backs
abstinence education.
* Duncan Hunter, California representative, favors
"equal emphasis" on abstinence. He wants to give
abstinence the same amount of teaching as the
dangers of sexually transmitted diseases.
* Mike Huckabee favors abstinence-only and opposes
abstinence-plus. In response to a question asking
whether his religious beliefs would allow him to
support AIDS prevention in Africa that might
include contraception, the Arkansas governor
compared it with domestic violence and said
compromising on either issue is not an option. "We
don't say that a little domestic violence is OK,
just cut it down a little, just don't hit quite as
hard," says the former Arkansas governor. "We say
it's wrong."
* Ron Paul, the Texas representative, favors
abstinence-only programs.
* Tom Tancredo, the Colorado representative, favors
abstinence-only programs.
For more information:
Human Rights Campaign, Candidate questionnaire on LGBT
issues:
http://www.hrc.org/news/5207.htm
National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned
Pregnancy:
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/
Mathematica Policy Research, Abstinence education
report, April 2007
[PDF format]:
http://www.mathematica-
mpr.com/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdf
Note: Women's eNews is not responsible for the content
of external Internet sites and the contents of Web pages
we link to may change without notice.
Alison Bowen is a New York City-based journalist
covering the 2008 campaign. Her work also appears in the
New York Daily News.
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