The National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) has launched a campaign called Parents for Truth to educate moms and dads about the harmful information their children are often exposed to in so-called “comprehensive” sex-education classes at school.
The goal of the campaign is to recruit 1 million parents nationwide over the next three years to fight for abstinence-based education in public schools.
NAEA Executive Director Valerie Huber shared with CitizenLink the shocking truth about “comprehensive” sex-ed curricula and how parents can get involved.
1. Why did you launch the Parents for Truth campaign?
Parents for Truth is designed to equip parents to advocate for abstinence education in their children’s schools. There is so much misinformation about what abstinence education is and what “comprehensive” sex education is. The two approaches are very different, and parents really need to become familiar with those differences.
Another goal of Parents for Truth is to encourage parents to elect members of Congress and local representatives who favor abstinence education.
Finally, we want to equip parents with skills and tools to be able to communicate the abstinence message to their children. We know parents should be the primary sex educators of their children. Teens say in survey after survey that they want their parents to be the ones who talk to them about this very difficult and sensitive topic, but often parents feel inadequately able to talk about this issue. So, an important part of this campaign is to give parents the confidence and the tools to be able to communicate abstinence education.
2. What is abstinence education?
We strongly support what we call abstinence-centered education, where at least 50 percent of the content is devoted to helping a teen become or remain abstinent. Abstinence education also provides or permits a discussion of contraception, but it’s always within the context of why abstinence is the best choice. There is information so teens know that while there are other options out there, only abstinence is going to protect them 100 percent. The purpose is to provide all of the risks associated with teen sexual activity and encourage them to wait until marriage.
3. What is so-called “comprehensive” sex education?
Parents unfortunately are being fed a lie that “comprehensive” sex education has abstinence at the core of its message. There is very little stress on abstinence. The Heritage Foundation did a study of the most widely recommended “comprehensive” sex-ed curricula, as did the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just a few months ago, and both of them found that only about 5 to 10 percent of the time is spent on abstinence education and much only gives a passing description. So what do they spend the rest of the time doing? That’s where it really becomes shocking.
“Comprehensive” sex education is often very graphic and explicit. There is information that encourages teens to engage in activities that may not cause a pregnancy but keep teens at risk for STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and serve as gateway activities to intercourse. The curricula encourage teens to cuddle naked, to shower together or to give each other body massages. Even more troubling is that the sexual "activities" are encouraged for children as young as 12 and 13.
4. Do parents actually support this dangerous sex-education message for their children?
About a year ago, we commissioned the Zogby polling firm to ask parents across the United States what they favored in terms of sex education for their children. Most parents initially said they favored “comprehensive” sex education because the term sounds more inclusive. But when we communicated to parents what is contained in each of those approaches, we found that parents — regardless of political party or location — favored abstinence education over “comprehensive” sex education by a 2-to-1 margin.
5. How can parents fight for abstinence-centered education?
We launched a Web site, www.ParentsforTruth.org, and parents can go to that site and join the campaign. There is a host of good information there.
There are very well-funded, special-interest groups such as Planned Parenthood, Advocates for Youth, SEICUS (Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States) and numerous others who receive a lot of funding from foundations — even the federal government — to promote their agenda. We don’t have that kind of money, but we know that if parents can be mobilized and informed, they will be able to accomplish far more than any funding will be able to accomplish. We’re looking for active coalitions of parents who are fighting this battle so we can assist them.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Learn the truth about “comprehensive” sex education and join the campaign for abstinence.
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