The Show Me State Decides Not To
Nearly twenty-five years ago, I was the Director of Education for Planned Parenthood of Metropolitian Washington. A major part of our work involved going into the public schools in the D.C. area to supplement the meager sex and health education that the schools were able to offer. We were often asked to do one class on contraceptive methods, but our response was always to ask to do multiple sessions so that we could talk with young people about responsible decision making, abstinence, their changing bodies, and their relationships. Our preference was actually to do teacher training so that the schools could have an ongoing ability to handle these issues themselves.
These memories came back to me when I learned yesterday that the legislature of Missouri has now banned Planned Parenthood staff and volunteers from coming into its public schools. Read the article at http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2007/06/11/sex-ed-bill-demands...
Now I admit that I don't know any particulars here, but I'm guessing that this bill passed based on ignorance about what Planned Parenthood educators do in the schools. I can imagine that there were speeches that defamed Planned Parenthood's excellent work and claimed that they pushed birth control and abortions on innocent young minds -- or even encouraged young people to have sex.
How do I know that? Because like so many of my sex education colleagues, I have been accused of all of this and worse during my career. A colleague this week in New Jersey wrote her friends about a smear campaign going on about her. I told her that during the worst of these efforts against my work, I reminded myself of all of the giants of the sex education field who had survived other such assaults.
I'm also willing to bet that not one of the legislators who voted for this bill had actually seen a Planned Parenthood education session in the school. Rather, they voted to deny young people needed information.
Some days its hard to love one's enemies.
Rev. Debra Haffner (http://www.debrahaffner.blogspot.com)
- Religious Institute's blog
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Steve's Got A Point
In fact, it has been documented that those young folks who "abstain" from intercourse loophole their way around celibacy pledges by engaging in oral and anal sex -- two surefire ways to pick up an STD.
That's unfortunate Rev. Haffner
Even for those people of faith who disagree with the notion of sex before marriage, the reality that most of our young people do not abstain. If the church wants to preach abstinence from the pulpit fair enough, but public policy must correspond to the realities of the world and sex education is necessary to ensure that we reduce unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of STDs.