ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Advocates In The News

Teen births rise for 1st time since '91
USA Today
December 5, 2007

The birth rate rose for the first time since 1991, according to new government data for 2006. Since 1991, the teen birth rate had declined by 34 percent. However, in 2006, the teen birth rate increased by three percent.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, an organization that favors comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence-only programs, says he's concerned that federal sex education policy "has become out of whack with the reality of adolescent lives."

"I think the decade of progress may well be coming to a screeching halt," he says. "And we have to ask the question, 'Why is the federal government not educating young people fully about sex?'."

To read the full article, please visit:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-12-05-teen-births_N.htm

Countries Observe World AIDS Day on Saturday
Voice of America
November 30, 2007

December 1st is the annual National World AIDS Day. This article addresses the state of HIV and AIDS in the world.

James Wagoner is president of Advocates for Youth, an organization that focuses on youth and sexual health. He says every day, 6,000 young people worldwide contract HIV. "The chief problem is denial -- denial by adult policy makers and politicians that young people need sex education to prevent HIV. Denial that the research shows that if you educate young people about sex, about condoms, about prevention, it does not cause sexual activity, despite the protestations of numerous governments and policy makers."

To read the full article, please visit:
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-30-voa30.cfm

HIV/AIDS Groups Urge New Direction in PEPFAR Reauthorization
CQ Healthbeat News
November 29, 2007

Congress is set to reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2008 and some groups are trying to weigh in on what it should say. In the current PEPFAR plan, one-third of all money spent on HIV prevention is required to go to abstinence-until-marriage programming.

Krystle Corpuz, a member of the International Youth Leadership Council, Advocates for Youth, stressed that abstinence-until-marriage programming is often ineffective for women who have little or no control over who they have sex with or at what age.

"We need to increase access to HIV prevention and not limit it to abstinence-until-marriage programs,” Corpuz said.

Because HIV does not discriminate, Corpuz said, “its prevention should not categorize who should and who should not receive information.”

To read the full article, please visit:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=1&docID=hbnews-000002634187

A lot of dough for abstinence programs
The Indianapolis Star
November 15, 2007

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, shown by government and other studies to be ineffective in changing sexual behavior among teenagers, are still getting federal money -- more, in fact, than ever before. Those who tend to get mad about "runaway spending" for wasteful programs should be downright incensed.

"This is kids' health and lives," says James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, an organization that promotes comprehensive sex education.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007711150319

Teen sex-ed programs backed
Washington Times
November 7, 2007

In his recent report Emerging Answers, Douglas Kirby found "no strong evidence" that abstinence programs actually persuade teens to stay abstinent, return to abstinence after losing their virginity or reduce the number of sexual partners once they become sexually active.

Despite these findings, and evidence from other similar reports, the Democratic leadership has recently approved a staggering $141 million in abstinence-only-until-marriage funding – the highest level ever for these ineffective and harmful programs.

"With one breathtakingly cynical move, the Democratic leadership has now stamped its brand on one of the biggest boondoggles in congressional history," Advocates for Youth President James Wagoner said in [a recent] blog, after House and Senate members agreed on funding allocations for the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.

To read the full article, please visit: http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071107/NATION/111070031

Abstinence approach gets unlikely ally
Los Angeles Times
October 15, 2007

Public health advocates have long criticized the abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, saying they are ineffective in combating teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases because they do not include information about contraception.

After a major federally funded study concluded that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs do not appear to have any effect on sexual abstinence among youth, nor on age of sexual initiation or number of sex partners, supporters of comprehensive sex education programs expected the Democratic-controlled Congress to decrease funding for these programs.

However, the oldest abstinence program won a reprieve last month. And a companion program may get a significant funding increase. The reason: Led by Dave Obey, some Democrats are suddenly protecting the programs.

Obey is supporting abstinence-only education, saying he wants to steer his panel away from the highly charged terrain of moral issues.

"The Democrats, and most notably Henry Waxman, used the abstinence-only issue as the cornerstone of the claim that the Bush administration was putting ideology and politics ahead of science," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit policy organization on sexual health. "Now they suddenly have gone mute and silent when their own people are in power. There is an element of political hypocrisy here."

Wagoner supports what is known as comprehensive sex education, which includes instruction both on abstinence and condoms, and is the leading alternative to abstinence-only programs.

This article is no longer available online.

Foes hit continued abstinence funding
Washington Times
September 30, 2007

Congress has extended Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program funding despite several reports citing the failure of these programs.

"Their actions defy logic and common sense," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth.

First, Congress funds what Mr. Wagoner called unproven abstinence programs. Then it commissions a study that shows they don't work, but lawmakers ignore those results and continue to fund the programs.

"Teens deserve better policies. We all deserve better leaders," said Mr. Wagoner, whose organization stresses rights, respect and responsibility in sex education.

To read the full article, please visit:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/NATION/109300045/

Bill's loophole upsets abstinence program backers
Washington Times
August 11, 2007

This Washington Times article reports on the renewal of funding for the Title V Abstinence Education Grant. Under a children's health bill passed at the beginning of August, the House added a "state option" to the $50 million-a-year Title V Abstinence Education grant program that would allow states to use the funds for abstinence-only programs — or programs that "promote abstinence" but can also teach methods to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce health risks to sexually active teens.

Abstinence proponents see this as undermining abstinence-only programs. However, James Wagoner states his disappointment in renewing Title V at all.

"We know these abstinence-only programs don't work. ... So why are we continuing to fund them?" asked Advocates for Youth President James Wagoner.

To read the full article, please visit: http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070811/NATION/108110047/1002

More teens heeding warnings about sex
Reading Eagle
August 3, 2007

Fewer high school students are engaging in sex, and of those who do, more are using condoms.

A report released earlier this month by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics said the number of high school students who reported being sexually active dropped to 47 percent in 2005 from 54 percent in 1991.

Of the students who reported having sex, 63 percent in the 2005 survey said they used condoms, up dramatically from 46 percent in 1991.

In this article James Wagoner discusses reasons for youth’s decreased sexual activity and increased use of contraception and condoms.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based nonprofit group that focuses on prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, credited educational programs launched in the 1980s and 1990s for convincing young people to view sex more realistically.

“We need to encourage young teens to delay sexual initiation, and we need to make sure they get all the information they need about condoms and birth control,” Wagoner said.

To read the full article, please visit:
http://internetservices.readingeagle.com/blog/editorials/archives/2007/08/more_teens_heed.html

DCPS educators gather to keep queer kids safe
Safety Monitor
August 2, 2007

From July 16-31, teachers, student counselors, school administrators and others in Washington DC, gathered for a two day program on ''creating a safe and welcoming environment for GLBTQ youth.'' DC-based GLBTQ newspaper Metro Weekly reported on the program.

"I'm already receiving a wealth of information," she (Cordelia Coleman, a DCPS school counselor) said, near the close of the first session Monday morning, presented by Angel Brown of the D.C.-based Advocates for Youth, a national organization.

Of particular interest to educators in the District, where most students belong to some ethnic/racial minority, was a document detailing ''The Impact of Homophobia and Racism on GLBTQ Youth of Color,'' crafted by Emily Bridges of Advocates for Youth and first released in June.

''This was supposed to be very straight forward, but there's really not that much out there,'' says Bridges, who holds a master's degree in library science. Culling from 24 different sources, Bridges' unique one-sheet advises, for example, that youth of color ''are significantly less likely to have told their parents they are GLBTQ'' or that, according to one study, ''more than half of ethnic minority transgender youth had experienced forced sex.''

Brown, a former SMYAL client herself, added that such a discussion, where everyone is allowed to respectfully share whatever feelings they may have, is the best way to make progress. ''What's happening is very natural. You have to have an organic conversation.''

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.metroweekly.com/gauge/?ak=2883

Our view on sex education: Abstinence-only fails to stop early pregnancies, diseases
USA Today
July 30, 2007

In this USA Today article, teacher and Advocates activist Sarah Audelo discusses the effects of abstinence-only education on her students.

After graduating from college last year, Sarah Audelo joined Teach for America and was assigned to the tiny Texas border town of La Joya. There, at Jimmy Carter High School, she noticed something odd.

Despite the fact that her school enrolled only ninth- and 10th-graders, a noticeable number of girls were mothers caring for babies or pregnant. Midway through the school year, one of her 14-year-old students became pregnant.

Then, Audelo discovered that the school's sex education program only teaches abstinence.

Texas, where Audelo teaches, is an abstinence-only state. She says most of her students know nothing about herpes. One young woman told Audelo that the HIV virus can be spread through sneezing. They deserve a program that teaches them the risks of sex and guides them toward wise decisions about how to handle it.

To read the full article, please visit: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/07/our-view-on-sex.html

Celibacy teaching dropped by US states
The Telegraph
July 27, 2007

The UK-based Telegraph reports on the growing numbers of states choosing to reject abstinence-only funding. Teacher and Advocates activist Sarah Audelo has witnessed the effects of abstinence-only sex education first hand.

Sarah Audelo, 23, teaches girls in their mid-teens at a high school in Texas, a state which has an abstinence-only sex education policy. "I wish all my students would abstain from sex," she said. "But I know that's not the reality so I also want them to be able to protect themselves if they do have sex.

"I've seen the pregnant girls who are evidence that some of our young people have sex. The school runs parenting classes but cannot teach students about contraception."

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/22/wsex122.xml

Positive Trends Recorded in U.S. Data on Teenagers
The Associated Press
July 12, 2007

According to a report released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, fewer high school students were having sex and more were using condoms in 2005. The number of students having sex decreased from 54 percent in 1991 to 47 percent in 2005. In addition, the number of students who are using condoms increased from 46 percent in 1991 to 63 percent in 2005. In the wake of the report James Wagoner spoke with the New York Times about the role of comprehensive sexuality education.

Education campaigns that started years ago have been having a significant effect, said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit group based in Washington that focuses on the prevention of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“I think the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the efforts in the ’80s and ’90s had a lot to do with that,” Mr. Wagoner said of the improved numbers on teenage sexual activity, condom use and births.

“We need to encourage young teens to delay sexual initiation, and we need to make sure they get all the information they need about condoms and birth control,” he said.

To access the full article, you must be a member and login at http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://.

The great sex debate: Does abstinence-only education work?
Times Daily (Alabama)
July 2, 2007

In this article, James Wagoner discusses the results of a 10-year, federally mandated study which found that children who were taught under abstinence-only programs were no more likely to abstain from sex than those who don’t take part in such programs.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, agrees with the report’s findings and said that a more “balanced approach” should be presented in sex education that includes abstinence and contraceptives.

“The report shows abstinence-only-until-marriage programs don’t work,” Wagoner said. “You have millions upon millions of young people that are getting no information about prevention.”

He said teaching abstinence, STD awareness and learning how to deal with peer pressure are important aspects of sex education, but the curriculum needs to go beyond that.

“The time has come in this country where we need a national, honest conversation … and help young people in this country balance, in a responsible way, their sexual health and desires with their needs to make good choices,” he said.

This article is no longer available online.

The Abstinence Gluttons
The Nation
June 18, 2007

Over one billion dollars has been spent in state and federal funds to support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The Nation investigates the impact wealthy conservative donors have had on sexuality education in America.

"I can't think of another federal program where so much money was spent without any oversight and to such little effect," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a national organization that promotes comprehensive sexual health policies. "It wasn't that policy-makers didn't know that abstinence-only didn't work. In 2000 the Institute of Medicine issued a scathing report on these programs. But they went full steam ahead despite the warning. It's beyond naïve. It's immoral."

To read the full article, please visit http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070618/reynolds

Study: More 'condoms' than 'abstinence' in sex-ed
The Washington Times
June 14, 2007

In June, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report examining comprehensive sexuality education programs and pointing out that many of them mentioned contraception and condoms more than they mentioned abstinence. Yet HHS kept quiet about the fact that several of the programs evaluated helped teens delay sexual activity and resulted in sexually active teens having fewer partners and/or less sex. Debra Hauser addressed the HHS’s “spin” on comprehensive sex education in this Washington Times article reports on the HHS findings.

Debra Hauser of Advocates for Youth, which supports comprehensive sex education, said the HHS report shows that the curricula benefits teens, asking rhetorically whether it was more important to mention abstinence thousands of times or improve teen sexual behavior.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www3.washingtontimes.com/national/20070613-113138-2070r.htm

Poll finds majority back birth control
The Washington Times
June 8, 2007

A poll released on June 7, 2007 showed that most Americans support comprehensive sex education, birth control and family planning services. However, later the same day, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies voted to increase funding for the Community Based Abstinence Education program (CBAE) by $27.8 million. CBAE funds groups that teach youth how to be sexually abstinent but censors information about the health benefits of condoms and contraception for sexually active youthl.

"A recent federal study showed that abstinence education has no effect on teen sexual behavior,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth. Voting for any funds for such programs is "a public slap in the face of public health policy," he said.

The full article is no longer available online.

Report: Sex doesn't harm older teens
USA Today
May 29, 2007

The American Journal of Sociology released a report stating that sex doesn’t harm the mental health of teens over the age of 15. The findings dispute the claim made by abstinence-only supporters, that sex can have harmful emotional consequences.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, an organization that favors comprehensive sex education rather than abstinence only, says Meier's study is "the most definitive peer-reviewed research we have to date."

To read the full article, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-05-28-teen-sex_n.htm

Why an AIDS Fight Faces Delay
The Wall Street Journal Online
May 21, 2007

The Wall Street Journal examines the issues around the requirement that 33% of HIV prevention funding in developing countries be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs, and how politics will affect whether that rule is repealed when global AIDS prevention and treatment funding is reauthorized.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based nonprofit that presses for sex education that includes abstinence and condom use for HIV protection, says that if the Democrats fail to delete the abstinence provision, "they'd leave themselves open to the charge of being public-health frauds."

To read the full article, please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117970231898808960-search.html?KEYWORDS=Why+an+AIDS+Fight+Faces+Delay&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month

10-Year Study Seen to Undercut Abstinence Emphasis
Education Week
April 24, 2007

A federally mandated report by the Mathematica Policy Research Inc. released on April 13, 2007, showed that four sexual-abstinence education programs were ineffective in changing the sexual behavior of teenagers. James Wagoner discusses government spending on harmful abstinence-only programs with Education Week.

James Wagoner, the president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington organization that supports comprehensive sex education that includes information about contraception, said he hoped that the report would bring federal abstinence funding to an end.

Improvements?

“There is an extraordinary litany of reports and findings that should have stopped these programs dead in their tracks seven years ago,” Mr. Wagoner said. “The evolution of the programs, far from bad to better, has been from bad to worse.”

To access the full article, you must be a member and login at http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html.

Studies put abstinence funds at risk
The Washington Times
April 23, 2007

The Mathematica Policy Research Inc.'s evaluation of four Title V federally funded abstinence programs found that the programs made little or no difference in the sexual lives of students. Half of the students who received Title V abstinence-only education programs abstained from sex, as did half the students who did not receive the Title V programs.

Advocates for Youth and its allies in comprehensive sex education plan to urge Congress to discredit abstinence-only education -- and its eight-point definition -- and replace it with programs that teach "abstinence plus contraception."

The federal study of four abstinence programs released last week "is where the state evaluations and other research lead us, which is that the abstinence-only approach doesn't work," said James Wagoner, the group's president. "I think it's time for Congress to defund these [abstinence-only] programs, turn away from this policy and support a policy that includes both abstinence and contraception. I think that's where common sense and public health leads us."

The full article is no longer available online.

Stop wasting tax dollars on abstinence programs
Des Moines Register
April 20, 2007

The results of the Mathematica Report on federally funded abstinence-only education programs, released April 13, 2007, showed that young people who received abstinence-only education were no more or less likely to have sex than those who did not receive the program.

Said Wagoner, who is president of the nonprofit Advocates for Youth, "It is difficult to cite a more glaring example of ideology and politics trumping public-health science."

The full article is no longer available online.

Abstinence education doesn't deter youths
The Washington Times
April 14, 2007

According to a government report released on April 13, 2007, youth who received abstinence-only education were no different than young people who received regular school services, when it came to sexual behavior.

"After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds, these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a group that promotes responsible sexual behavior.

The full article is no longer available online.

CHE programs try to come out of the closet
The Yale Herald
March 30, 2007

A Yale undergraduate community service organization, Community Health Educators (CHE), presents workshops on all aspects of health including sexual health in New Haven public schools. CHE leaders recognize the importance of addressing issues of homosexuality in the classroom. In this article Angel Brown talked to the Yale Herald about including GLBTQ youth in health education programs.

Angel Brown, head of the LGBT section of Advocates for Youth, an organization that pushes for comprehensive sexual health education, believes that this can be accomplished by approaching different forms of sexuality from a developmental standpoint. At different ages, she explains, we recognize the same changes in humans. “The common misconception is that there’s some difference,” she says. Even though LGBT students face “special stresses and issues” due to cultural issues, they are essentially going through the same process as heterosexual students.

To read the full article, please visit http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=5419.

Analysis: Report blasts AIDS funding rules
UPI
March 30, 2007

The Institute of Medicine released a report recommending Congress to remove budget allocations, especially for abstinence-only programs, in PEPFAR. Currently, of the 20 percent of funding allocated for prevention programs, one-third of that money is required to be spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. While PEPFAR has had successes, the report says, the budget formula limits countries' ability to apply and use resources where they are most needed.

"The prohibition on condom education for young people and unilateral emphasis on abstinence has been a major barrier to AIDS prevention," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a group that operates HIV peer-education programs in more than a dozen countries.

"On the ground, it absolutely intimidates grantees around condom use."

There are 19 million sexually active young people in the 15 PEPFAR countries and they deserve complete information about all the methods of reducing the risk of HIV infection -- including condoms, Wagoner said. "It is a public health disgrace when we are creating a climate of fear around the most effective prevention tool for sexually active young people."

The overall budgetary constraints are also counterproductive, he added, because they complicate groups' efforts to get help to those who need it.

"This isn't some benevolent theoretical column for money in Washington. This is a barrier on the ground that is doing real harm to real people in real time."

To read the full article, please visit http://www.upi.com/Health_Business/Analysis/2007/03/30/analysis_report_blasts_aids_funding_rules/5425/

States Turn Down Abstinence-Only Grants
Education Week
March 28, 2007

The Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sent a memorandum last week to state agencies who receive funding.

The memorandum to applicants stressed that each of the eight rules for abstinence-only-until-marriave programs must be equally covered, the applicants “must not” promote condom or other contraceptive use, and applicants also must not promote or encourage the use of any type of contraceptives outside of marriage or refer to abstinence as a form of contraception.

However, because of several recent reports citing that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs do not work, many states are now turning the money away.

“You’re going to find more and more states turning this money back,” said Marcela Howell, the vice president of communications and marketing for Advocates for Youth, a Washington organization that supports comprehensive sex education.

To access the full article, you must be a member and login at http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html.

Initiative uses pill to thwart teen pregnancies
The Catalyst (Medical University of South Carolina)
March 2, 2007

This article features the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative is a multi-year commitment to create public awareness, initially targeting the greater metropolitan Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston markets.

“By developing a broad-based statewide coalition of informed health care providers, advocates and consumers, we hope to significantly decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies among young women under age 25 over the next few years,” said Bonnie Adams, executive director of New Morning Foundation.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative, a partnership of New Morning Foundation, a grant-making organization headquartered in Columbia, and Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based teen health policy group, seeks to educate young women about the availability of Plan B.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/2007/co3-2pill.html

Dealing with the morning after
Old Gold & Black (Wofford College Paper, SC)
March, 2007

This article highlights the work of the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative, a partner collaboration between the New Morning Foundation and Advocates for Youth.

In an effort to promote this new availability, the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative has launched an effort aimed at awareness and education.

“The initiative is designed to help young women prevent unintended pregnancy by educating them and others in the community and improving access to emergency birth control,” says a press release from New Morning Foundation and Advocates for Youth, partnerships of the initiative.

The Initiative emphasizes that, as a higher dose of birth control medication, the morning-after pill does not cause an abortion nor does it harm an existing pregnancy, but rather can inhibit fertilization or prevent implantation, an emphasis with which it hopes to avoid much of the politics that have surrounded past discussions about the pill.

This article is no longer available online.

Plan B easier to swallow
George Street Observer (College of Charleston SC)
February 2, 2007

This article talks about the FDA decision to make emergency contraception available for people age 18 or older without a prescription. Bonnie Adams talks about the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative which is a partner collaboration between Advocates for Youth and the New Morning Foundation.

“Since the FDA's decision, organizations such as the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative have been campaigning to promote and educate young women about the use and availability of Plan B. The Initiative, which is a partnership of New Morning Foundation, was founded five years ago to help prevent unplanned pregnancies. As a South Carolina-only focus group, the Initiative seeks to target young women between the ages of 16 and 25, focusing more however on the Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston markets.

Because there are so many females who are unaware of the pill and its effects, the Initiative works with health care providers and OBGYNs to inform young women and increase public awareness of the use of Plan B, commonly called "the morning-after pill."

Bonnie Adams, Executive Director of New Morning Foundation, said there has been a great deal of confusion between the morning-after pill and the abortion pill, RU-486. "Our campaign is totally focused on the progestin product, Plan B, that the FDA just approved in August, which is not an abortion pill and cannot cause an abortion," Adams said.”

To read the full article, please visit: http://media.www.georgestreetobserver.com/media/storage/paper908/news/2007/02/08/News/Plan-B.Easier.To.Swallow-2705133-page2.shtml