 |
Abstinence is saying yes to the rest of your life. |
|
|
Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update February 5, 2002 Washington state medical accuracy bill could make adolescents sick The Washington State House and Senate have proposed a bill that would require sex education and abstinence education programs to be "medically accurate." However, abstinence-until-marriage proponents fear how the bill will really be used. "If this medical accuracy bill goes through, reasons will be fabricated to exclude all healthy abstinence-until-marriage education programs from public school classrooms," stated Dr. Glenn Ridder, M.D., Director of the Medical Abstinence Council of the Abstinence Clearinghouse. "The lack of the abstinence message will mean more promiscuous behavior and kids sick with STDs and heartbreak." Washington State Senate Bill 6506 would require that abstinence programs meet the approval of "leading professional organizations and agencies with relevant expertise in the field." A joint legislative oversight committee will be given authority to review Title V, SPRANS and Title XX contracts awarded to groups working in the state of Washington. Pro-comprehensive sex education forces in the committee, the Department of Health and the Department of Education will be given power to reject any abstinence-until-marriage program adopted by local school boards. The most outspoken supporter of the bill (and silent author), Planned Parenthood, is attacking strong abstinence programs such as SHARE to discredit its growing popularity in the state. Dr. Ridder wants to know what exactly "medical accuracy" means. "If an abstinence-until-marriage text is a year old and new statistics on teen pregnancy come out, will it be deemed medically inaccurate? What if the text accurately states that HPV is spread from skin-to-skin contact, but does not give the CDC’s seven steps to perfect condom use? Is this medically accurate or not?" Other questions raised include: How many medically-inaccurate statements are needed to enact a ban on the material? Who, other than the CDC and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are considered as "leading professional organizations and agencies with relevant expertise?" Will organizations and agencies who have publicly proclaimed support for comprehensive sex education be allowed to review abstinence-until-marriage materials? If multiple studies report conflicting peer-reviewed published conclusions, what information will be used to determine medical accuracy? Will the same standards apply to abstinence education and condom education programs? "Clearly the term ‘medical accuracy’ is too broad. The bill was designed so that it could be manipulated to outlaw abstinence-until-marriage education programs," said Dr. Ridder. Reminder Douglas Kirby, Ph.D., will moderate an on-line Re-CAPP discussion forum
tomorrow, Wednesday, February 6, 2002 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PST. During the forum, Dr. Kirby will answer questions about his May 2001 report entitled
Emerging Answers (published by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen
Pregnancy). To register for the forum, visit ReCAPP's homepage at www.etr.org/recapp and click on the forum
icon on the right hand side of the screen. If you would like to support the work of the Abstinence Clearinghouse and the sharing of the abstinence message around the world, please contact us at 888.57.SAYNO (7.2966). |
