I'm Proud To Live In New York State

From the NYCLU newsletter...

The New York Civil Liberties Union released a report in September showing that the state's tax­payer-funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs endangered youth by leaving them unprepared to make healthy decisions about sexual activity. Before the NYCLU had finished its press con­ference to unveil the report, State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines announced that New York would re­ject millions of dollars in federal funding for abstinence programs and redirect state funding toward comprehen­sive sex education.

Daines called the Bush administration's abstinence-only-until-marriage program "an example of a failed national healthcare policy directive, based on ide­ology rather than on sound, scientific-based evidence that must be the cornerstone of good public healthcare policy."

Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director, applauded the NYCLU's Reproductive Rights Project for drawing the state's attention to the failure of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. "If only the state responded to all of our reports with such immediate, positive action," Lieberman said. "It is a credit to the hard work that Galen Sherwin and our Reproductive Rights Project put into reporting the failures of these programs and the need to provide chil­dren full, unbiased and accurate information regarding sexual health."

The report, Financing Ignorance: A Report on Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Funding in New York, chronicles an in-depth investigation of 39 abstinence-only-until-marriage programs statewide that received federal funding through 2006.

The NYCLU's analysis revealed that:
• Abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula used across the state contain serious medical inaccuracies and em­ploy fear-based teaching methods:
° Curricula used by 22 programs inflate rates of STIs and HIV/AIDS and exaggerate the failure rates of condoms in preventing STIs, HIV/AIDS and pregnancy.
° These same curricula rely on scare-tactics, presenting a list of dire consequences of pre-marital sex­ual activity; one curriculum includes in this list: "heart­break, infertility, loneliness, cervical cancer, [and] poverty."
° Curricula used by seven programs contain falsehoods regarding abortion, telling students, for ex­ample, that an abortion could significantly endanger a young woman's ability to have children in the future. Five programs partnered with crisis pregnancy centers, organizations that frequently promote inaccurate and bi­ased views about abortion.

• The same curricula demonstrate serious bias:
° Gender stereotypes regarding the different "natures" of girls and boys with respect to sexuality and relationships are presented as im­mutable, scientific facts. For example, one program teaches that "fi­nancial support" is one of the five "major needs of women," and "do­mestic support" is one of the five "major needs of men."
° Lesbian/gay/bisexual/trans-gender youth are either completely ignored or demonized as "unnatural."

• At least 19 of the funded programs focused a significant amount of programming on after school recreational activities with no direct relation to sex education. ^-
° Instructors were not required to have special training or expertise as educators.
° Programs were not evaluated, or even re­quired to evaluate themselves.
° Religious groups received more than half (53 percent) of this government funding without adequate safeguards against proselytizing, and religious content was included in some of the programming.

Since 1981, the federal government has distrib­uted more than $1 billion for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs throughout the nation. New York had been the third-largest recipient of federal funding for such programs - behind Texas and Florida. In fiscal year 2006, New York accepted more than $10 million in fed­eral money, matched by nearly $4 million in state fund­ing.

New York's announcement means that federal funds granted under Title V, one of the main funding streams for abstinence-only-until-marriage education, will be discontinued. Beginning Oct. 1, New York began redirecting state matching funds to expand com­prehensive sex education in schools and other commu­nity settings. But community based organizations in New York State still receive $5 million directly from the federal government. Congress recently voted to increase those funds by $28 million.

Galen Sherwin, director of the Reproductive Rights Program, applauded the state's decision but said the government must do more. "It's good that the state is shutting down pro­grams that were misinforming adolescents, and even better that it is redirecting money to comprehensive sex education," Sherwin said. "But there is long way to go to ensure that New York's youth receive the information they need to make healthy decisions."

The report urges the state Legislature to pass the Healthy Teens Act, which would provide funding for school districts, boards of cooperative education services and community-based organizations to provide compre­hensive sex education programs. It also recommends amending the State Education Law to require age-appro­priate comprehensive sex education in public schools and calls on Congress to cease all funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in New York often use curricula that are riddled with inaccuracies and distortions:

CLAIM: Condoms are ineffective in preventing pregnancy 15 percent of the time during the first year of use. "This means that over a pe­riod of five years, there could be a 50 percent chance or higher of getting pregnant with con­doms used as a birth control method."
FACT: The logic used to deter­mine a 50 percent risk of getting preg­nant is flawed. The risk remains the same from year to year and does not increase over time. Failure rates are largely due to inconsis­tent or incorrect use.

CLAIM: "If condoms were effective against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)], the in­crease in condom usage would correlate to a decrease in STDs overall - which is not the case. Rather, as condom usage has in­creased, so have rates of STDs."
FACT: The CDC has established that con­doms reduce the risk of chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV infection, and that there is a relationship between condom use and lower rates of cervical cancer caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).