ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Rights. Respect. Responsibility.® The Keep it REAL Campaign—End Censorship in America's Schools

Questions and Answers

• What can the Keep it REAL Campaign do to end censorship in America's schools?
• Who is affected by abstinence-only-until-marriage education?
• Why do we need the Keep it REAL Campaign?
• What is the status of federal funding for abstinence-only programs?
• What's happening at state and local levels regarding sex education?
• What can I do?

The Keep it REAL Campaign is a direct organizing effort, led by Advocates for Youth’s Youth Activist Network. The long-term goal of the Campaign is to ensure that Congress passes the Responsible Education about Life (REAL) Act. The Campaign’s more immediate goal is to obtain 25 additional U.S. senators as co-sponsors of the REAL Act. The REAL Act would allocate federal funds to allow states to implement comprehensive approaches to sex education in the schools, approaches that honor youth’s fundamental human right to accurate sexual health information.

What Can the Keep it REAL Campaign Do to End Censorship in America's Schools?

Since 1996, the federal government has poured over $1.5 billion (including matching funds from the states) into unproven abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that censor information about the health benefits of contraception, including condoms. The programs further isolate gay and lesbian youth by only affirming sexual relationships within marriage, and gay and lesbian youth cannot marry. Congress and the Bush Administration think that we, as youth, can't handle the information that we need.

As young people, we must unite to tell policy makers that we can make responsible decisions when we have enough information. We know that comprehensive sex education can provide the information and skills we need to protect ourselves and to protect the people we love from disease and unintended pregnancy. The Campaign provides an avenue for us to affect public policies that directly affect us. We can let the federal government know what we think and we can change sex education policies in our local school districts. We can make our voice bold, national, and coordinated!

Who Is Affected by Abstinence-only-until-Marriage Education?

We all are!

1. As young people, we are all denied information about how to protect ourselves against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.
2. Our teachers are prohibited from responding to our questions about the health benefits of contraception, including condoms.
3. Youth of color—who face an increased risk for HIV/STIs—are denied critical information about protection!
4. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) youth are taught abstinence-only-until-marriage when same-gender marriages are prohibited both federally and in most states. GLBTQ youth are not taught how to keep sexually healthy throughout their lifetime, and their needs are overlooked, as though they don't exist.

To date, there is no data to support claims that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are effective. In fact, research clearly indicates that honest sex education—sex education that includes information about both abstinence and contraception and condoms—is most effective in reducing sexual risk taking behavior.

Why Do We Need the Keep it REAL Campaign?

Young people have the right to accurate sexual health information that can protect their health and save their lives. Access to accurate, complete sexual health information is a human right. In fact, the Society for Adolescent Medicine released a position statement asserting that abstinence-only and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ethically and morally unsound in that they censor vital health information that youth need. The REAL Act would allocate federal funds to allow states to implement comprehensive approaches to sex education in the schools, approaches that honor youth’s fundamental human right to accurate sexual health information.

What Is the Status of Federal Funding for Abstinence-only Programs?

The federal government currently funds three separate programs that support abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, while providing no money specifically for comprehensive sex education.

• The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act ("welfare reform") committed $50 million per year for five years for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs under Section 510 of the Social Security Act. To receive federal funds, states must provide three state dollars for every four federal dollars, amounting to almost $40 million in matching funds, meaning $90 million per year for these ineffective programs.
• Under the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA), Congress annually allocates about $12 million for grants for abstinence-only-until-marriage education under Title XX of the Public Health Service Act.
• In recent years, the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant's Special Projects of Regional and National Significance (SPRANS) program has provided $55 million or more annually for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

Click here for more about the history of federal government's funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.

What's Happening at State and Local Levels regarding Sex Education?

Every U.S. state except California has taken the federal Section 510 funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and has provided the required state match (three state dollars for every four federal dollars). This means over $700 million has been poured into ineffective programs that censor information on health benefits of contraception, including condoms. Aside from the federal funding to states, many local school districts across the country, persuaded by proponents of abstinence-only programs, limit sexual health information only to abstinence and deny students any positive information about the health benefits of using contraception and condoms. This is why our focus at the local level can have a great impact.

According to a peer-reviewed study published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, in 1999—

• Sixty-nine percent of public school districts in the United States maintained a district-wide policy to provide sex education for their students.
• Of these school districts, 35 percent (23 percent of all U.S. school districts) implemented abstinence-only programs, which teach abstinence as students' only option before marriage and which either omit or distort any information about contraception and condoms.
• Abstinence-only policy was much more prevalent in the school districts in southern states, which were almost five times more likely to implement such a policy than those in the Northeast.
• One district in three prohibited teaching anything positive about contraception or condoms.

What Can I Do?

Please, take immediate action. Sign the petition urging the President and Congress to stop supporting abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and to support responsible sex education.

References:

1. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Sex Education in America: A Series of National Surveys of Students, Parents, Teachers, and Principals. Menlo Park, CA: The Foundation, 2000.
2. Landry DJ, Kaeser L, Richards CL. Abstinence promotion and the provision of information about contraception in public school district sexuality education policies. Family Planning Perspectives 1999; 31:280-286.

Updated May 2008

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