Sex Education Week of Action Urges Solutions to Poor Sexual Health in the South

This week, the Ms. Foundation for Women is joining a diverse group of 20 organizations across 10 states in the U.S. South urgently calling for age-appropriate, medically accurate, evidence-based or evidence-informed sexual health education.

These organizations, brought together by the Ms. Foundation since 2010 through a series of in-person and telephone gatherings, are mobilizing in communities throughout the region to conduct local activities and events—from meeting with legislators and school board members to hosting press conferences and events that showcase the stories of young people—to raise awareness about poor sexual health in the South and advocate for change.

Among the highlights:
• The ACLU of Mississippi, in collaboration with state partners, is hosting gatherings with teen girls to discuss how the absence of comprehensive sex education has impacted their communities. The groups will write letters to the state superintendent and local school board members.
• The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina is hosting a two-day retreat called “Your Story is Your Strength: Turning Teen Parenthood into Power” in which teen mothers from across the state participate in workshop discussions and a media training.

A report just released by Auburn University at Montgomery’s Center for Demographic Research, “Sexual Health of Young People in the U.S. South: Challenges and Opportunities,” underscores the critical need for improved sexual health education in the Southern region.

Key findings include:
• The South’s sexual health profile ranks below that of every other region in the U.S.
• The teenage birth rate is higher in the South than anywhere else in the country.
• The teenage rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea are higher in the South than in other regions in the nation.
• Poor sexual health among teenagers has real costs in terms of public funds. For example, in 2008 an estimated $2.3 billion from federal, state and local governments was spent on teenage childbearing-related expenses in the South.

The report, commissioned by the Ms. Foundation for Women, also highlights opportunities decision-makers have to improve the sexual health of teenagers in the U.S. South, including new federal grant programs for adolescent sexual health and teen pregnancy prevention, which provide funding for the implementation of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs that teach young people how to delay sexual activity and avoid risky sexual behaviors.

Among other topics, these approaches include information about abstinence but also teach information on healthy relationships, contraception and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. The report also found that nearly 90 percent of people in the U.S. South favor the teaching of sex education (covering a range of topics) in public schools.

Photo (c) Elizabeth Rappaport & the Ms. Foundation for Women

Evaluation Finds 'Funding Plus' Sex Ed Strategy Works

In 2005, the Ms. Foundation launched a sex ed initiative to ensure that all young people will one day have access to fully funded, comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality education. Our Sexuality Education Advocacy Initiative (SEAI) was built to support grantees in achieving concrete policy and organizational wins; provide them with critical capacity building support; and cultivate networking and information-sharing between state and national groups to enhance the alignment of local, state and federal policy.

This multi-tiered, "funding-plus" model was, we believed, the most effective approach to supporting state-level efforts to mandate comprehensive sexuality education. Now, five years after SEAI's launch, an outside evaluation has confirmed that our strategy works.

In their evaluation of SEAI, Tom Novick and Erin Anderson of M+R Strategic Services found that the Ms. Foundation's "funding plus” grant-making strategy added significant value to its financial support of SEAI grantees. From the report:

The "funding plus" training and technical assistance were extremely effective in helping achieve the SEAI objectives.... This support helped grantees become more strategic and precise in targeting and organizing, and helped them see the connections between advocacy efforts at the local, state and national levels.

The evaluators concluded that thanks to the Ms. Foundation's multi-layered support strategy, "all current SEAI grantees have made tangible progress towards their determined policy wins relating to comprehensive sexuality education, despite the policy changes taking longer and being harder to achieve that originally expected."

That's the kind of news we like to hear!
Learn more about how the Ms. Foundation is working to support comprehensive sex ed initiatives across the nation.

Illinois Governor Rejects Abstinence-Only Funds, Opts for Comprehensive Sex Ed

It's nice to have proof that there's some balance in the world. Case in point: While Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was busy rejecting government funding for comprehensive sex ed programs in his state last week, the governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, decided to stand up for the rights of youth in his own.

Quinn, a Democrat, has chosen to reject all federal funding for Title V, abstinence-only programs in the state of Illinois, applying instead for nearly $2 million in funding through the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) -- a federal program that supports the teaching of comprehensive age-appropriate, medically accurate sexual health education in schools.

The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, a Ms. Foundation grantee, released a statement late last week cheering Quinn's decision to move Illinois away from Title V (abstinence-only) funding. In that statement, they underscore what many experts already agree to be true about abstinence-only education: it simply does not work.

Abstinence-only-until marriage (AOUM) programs have been proven ineffective in reducing both youth birth rates and sexually transmitted infection rates. Moreover, according to a 2008 report published by Legal Momentum, Sex, Lies and Stereotypes, abstinence-only programs and policies are known to reinforce harmful gender stereotypes, stigmatize LGBTQ youth and families, increase public health risks, and restrict access to youth who may not have alternative sources of information. Prohibited from encouraging contraceptive use, abstinence-only programs instead distort contraceptive failure rates and disparage the idea of safer sex.

Meanwhile, the kind of comprehensive, medically accurate and age-appropriate sexual education programs supported by PREP funding gives youth the tools they actually need to make informed decisions about their sexual health.

We too applaud Governor Quinn's decision to provide the youth of Illinois with the kind of education they deserve -- the kind that empowers them to ask questions, learn the truth, and protect their own health and well-being. If only the children in every other state should be so lucky.

Minnesota Governor Rejects Sex-Ed Funding

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has decided that his state doesn't need federal money for sex education -- unless, that is, it's used to spread the "abstinence-only" message.

The Minnesota Star-Tribune reports that Pawlenty has rejected a teen pregnancy prevention grant from the federal government worth $850,000 because it would have required the state to teach medically accurate comprehensive sex ed (which, yes, includes mention of condoms and other contraceptive measures).

Instead, the Governor instructed the Minnesota Department of Health to apply only for funds earmarked for abstinence-only education -- $500,000 worth, in fact, which comes with a requirement that the state match those funds to the tune of $379,000.

Pawlenty claims that he rejected the larger sum of federal money because it's tied to President Obama's health care reform package, which Pawlenty a Republican) opposes. That could make some kind of sense, except... the abstinence-only money is a provision of the exact same health care package.

Whatever Pawlenty really feels about health care reform, his decision to reject federal money for comprehensive sex ed is clearly not about that. It's about bolstering the abstinence-only movement in his state -- and, some would argue, about shoring up his own right wing bona fides for a purported presidential run in 2012.

It may actually be a shrewd move on Pawlenty's part, one that will play exceptionally well to his party's base. But who pays the price for this calculation, whatever may be motivating it? The millions of teens in Minnesota who will now be deprived of comprehensive sexuality education. With rates of teen pregnancy and STIs on the rise in Minnesota (and well above national averages), the last thing the young adults in this state needed was for their governor to cut off funding that would have taught them the real deal about their sexual health -- and literally saved their lives in the process.

The situation in Minnesota may be staggering, but the teens in this state are not the only ones suffering. A provision of the health care bill passed this Spring restored nearly $250 million in abstinence-only federal funding; as we speak, states across the nation are applying for those funds -- sometimes along with funds for comprehensive sex ed, and sometimes, as in Minnesota, without them.

At the Ms. Foundation, we know that access to comprehensive, medically-accurate sexuality education is fundamental to the health and well-being of women, youth and their communities. That is why we continue to invest in grassroots organizations working to bring age-appropriate, medically-accurate sexuality eduction to communities nationwide.

Learn more about how we're working at the state and local level to counteract policies and programs -- like those now making waves in Minnesota -- that disrespect our youth and put their lives in danger. And read Ms. Foundation staffer Sunny Daly's take on why, 50 years after the release of the birth control pill, sex education is more important than ever.

Join the Fight for Comprehensive Sexuality Education

Former Ms. Foundation grantee Advocates for Youth is pushing to bring comprehensive sex ed to every state in the nation -- and they need your help!

Thanks to the hard work of thousands of advocates around the country, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has officially launched the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), allowing states to apply for $55 million in first-of-its-kind federal funding for comprehensive sex education. Now the key is to get state governors to actually apply to bring that funding to their states.

Urge your Governor to apply for PREP funding to bring comprehensive sex ed to your community!

States have until August 30th to make their intention to apply known -- so time is short. Make sure the leadership in your state capital knows that you support the teaching of medically accurate sexuality eduction, not abstinence-only programs that have been proven ineffective but continue to garner support at the highest levels of governance, in terms of both domestic and international policy.

Take action on behalf comprehensive sex-ed today!

New York City Moves One Step Closer to Mandating Comprehensive Sex-Ed

Imagine that all children in New York City public schools were offered a curriculum in comprehensive sexuality education. That students were taught about birth control, the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and were encouraged to make responsible decisions about their sexuality. Sounds pretty idyllic, doesn't it?

Well, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union this utopian world may be on its way to becoming a reality. The New York City Department of Education recently applied for a $20 million federal grant from the Office of Adolescent Health to support the introduction of a comprehensive age-appropriate sexuality education curriculum in New York City public schools (award decisions are expected in September 2010).

For years, advocates like Ms. Foundation grantees the HIV Law Project and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), have fought to put evidence-based curricula in schools -- and it looks like their hard work has finally paid off. Just last week these two organizations and long list of other advocates (including the New York Civil Liberties Union) sent a letter [pdf] to Joel Klein, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, urging him to implement comprehensive age-appropriate sexuality education in all New York City middle and high schools by the 2010-11 school year. "Only by implementing such a requirement will we be able to guarantee that students are provided with the information they need to embark on a lifetime of healthy choices about sex and sexuality," their letter stated.

The addition of comprehensive sexuality education is especially crucial in New York City, where, at present, state curriculum does not require the teaching of any sex ed in public schools, and only briefly mentions general health education and HIV-AIDS prevention. The status quo has long been detrimental to the sexual health of the city's youth. According to the letter to Klein, "41% of New York City youth reported becoming sexually active by 9th grade," while one in four teenage women had acquired a sexually transmitted disease (an especially frightening statistic when you factor in that New York City has the highest HIV-AIDS infection rate in the country).

It's clear that the current state of affairs should not and cannot be maintained -- and the grant application is a real indication that the DOE understands this to be true. The city was spurred to apply for the grant partly as a result of an incredibly successful pilot project that ran in seven schools located in the South Bronx during the 2007-2008 school year. The pilot project showed that the NYC school system is ready for sexual health education reform; it used a DOE-approved comprehensive sexuality curriculum, was widely supported by teachers, principals, administrators and parents, and, most importantly, demonstrated a significant learning curve for students. According to the evaluation report [pdf], co-authored by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:

• Students were highly engaged in the program;
• Very few parents chose to opt their children out of it;
• All of the teachers who completed the program reported that providing sex education in school is important and several said it should be mandatory;
• All of the principals who participated in a final focus group said they would use the curricula again and recommend them to other principals.

This pilot project has set the stage for an expansion of these programs city-wide, and underscored what advocates and community-based organizations have long known: that evidence-based, age-appropriate sexuality education is necessary and effective. It is the only way to ensure sexual health and prepare our youth to make responsible choices. With the help of these federal funds -- should they be forthcoming -- the city has the potential to step forward and become a model for comprehensive sexuality education across the state. Let's hope the feds see fit to make that happen.

At Pill's 50th Anniversary, Sex Ed More Important Than Ever

Around the country this month, countless tributes, articles and campaigns have rightly celebrated the birth control pill on its 50th anniversary. But amid all the much-deserved hoopla, we would do well to remember that a pill alone can never be "the great liberator" of women's lives. Though its development was a revolutionary step in the right direction, research shows that education -- about sex, sexuality, and the choices we all make in relation to the two -- remains the key to securing the reproductive health of women and girls in this nation and around the world -- not least of all, on the national front, in the aftermath of Bush's federally mandated abstinence-only curricula.

With those facts in mind, the Ms. Foundation's Sexuality Education Advocacy Initiative (SEAI) has been fighting since 2005 to make comprehensive sexuality education available to students in every state in our nation. The initiative helps to build support for responsible sexuality education school-by-school, district-by-district and state-by-state, understanding that each community faces a unique combination of issues around local leadership, financial capacity and political climate. The goal of SEAI is to bring about positive policy changes to ensure that the majority of young people in the US are provided with the information and education they need to help them make truly informed decisions about their sexuality and sexual health, including: access to a full range of contraceptive options; an understanding of STI and HIV prevention and treatment; economic access to reproductive care; and the right to abortion.

Because of the efforts of thousands of women's health advocates, community leaders, doctors and responsible parents across this country, today, more women and girls have access to the knowledge that will help them make informed decisions about their reproductive health than ever before in our history. But too many of us are still denied this essential education – denied the ability to truly understand our bodies and take control of our own sexual health. That is why we at the Ms. Foundation continue to support organizations that possess the local knowledge and strategic relationships to ensure that responsible sexuality education is available to us all.

For example:

One grantee, the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (TFNEF), recently succeeded in passing more stringent School Health Advisory Council accountability requirements and securing a hearing on comprehensive sexuality education legislation in the Texas House – for the first time in 14 years. High local teenage pregnancy rates have motivated administrators in several North Texas districts to take action and, with Ms. Foundation support, TFNEF has positioned itself to channel this energy into the development and implementation of expanded sexuality curricula.


Another grantee, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ), is currently identifying and training local advocates to appear at local events, in order to broaden community support for comprehensive sexuality education. Along with their partner in California’s central valley, ACT for Women and Girls (a Ms. Foundation reproductive rights grantee), CLRJ's immediate goal is to catalyze enough representation from young girls, parents and teachers to pass a progressive and far-reaching school board resolution this Spring that solidifies the commitment, finances and will to implement sexuality education in its district.

Grantees like these and others are winning the fight for responsible sexuality curricula. They are proving the impact that positive conversations about sexuality can have when it comes to improving the lives of women and girls from Ann Arbor to Addis Ababa. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pill, we must also work to move beyond the "risk management" approach that both the Pill and "teen pregnancy prevention" embody, as they do little to guarantee the physical and emotional well-being of young-people -- nor do they ensure that sex education goes beyond, "Take the Pill, don't ask questions." It will really be time to cheer when every girl and woman in America -- and around the world -- has access not only to the Pill itself, but also to the information and services they need to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.

Hopefully, not long from now, that's exactly what we'll be celebrating.

Sunny Daly
Corporate and Foundation Relations Manager
Ms. Foundation for Women

Sunny Daly is the author of Changing Images of the Birth Control Pill: 1960-1973 (2008). She has a Masters in Gender and Women's Studies from the American University in Cairo.

Health Care Reform Revives Funding for Failed Abstinence-Only Approach

Federal funding for abortion, as we well know, has been front and center in the health-care debate. But what has received far less attention is the revival of federal funding for Bush-era abstinence-only-until-marriage programs (yep, the ones that prohibit any discussion of the benefits of contraception) in the final health-care bill. We find this incredibly hard to believe. After celebrating a long-fought, hard-won victory last year when President Obama let federal funding for the failed abstinence-only approach lapse, we join our grantees and other activists who are shocked and dismayed that such a discredited program is yet again alive.

Still, it is true: the final health-care reform bill includes funding – to the tune of $50 million a year – for the abstinence-only-until-marriage initiative, Title V. This reinstatement flies in the face of evidence – including a study commissioned by the federal government – that these programs are not only unsuccessful, but harmful. Evidence that Congress, says Joseph DiNorcia, Jr., president and CEO of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a Ms. Foundation grantee partner, is well aware of:

[Congress has] the facts. They know that this program is harmful to young people, uses federal dollars to spread misinformation, fear, and shame, and is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars. Who decided it was a good idea to forgo saving a quarter-of-a-billion dollars over the next five years and continue funding for a failed program that leaves young people at risk? Why this program is being brought back from the dead is a mystery.

Whatever the impetus, this is a frustrating setback for advocates of medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education who for years worked tirelessly to convince state after state to reject abstinence-only-until-marriage funding. Now advocates will be forced – yet again – to resort to this approach. In the words of James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, also a Ms. Foundation grantee partner: “Together, we now have even more to do. We need to convince every governor in America to reject the bad funding for Title V programs and accept the good funding for evidence-based, comprehensive programs.”

It is also true that the health-care bill provides $75 million per year over five years for a new evidence-based “personal responsibility education program,” [see this analysis by the Guttmacher Institute] intended to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. But the implications of the nonsensical abstinence-only backtrack cannot be ignored: forced to resurrect their strategy to convince states to refuse abstinence-only funding, advocates will likely have to divert resources from the implementation of evidence-based, comprehensive sexuality education – district by district, school by school – which still, for all intents and purposes, remains a monumental task.