Obama Administration Blocks Pro-Abstinence Study from Public

"A taxpayer-funded study that indicates parental and adolescent support of abstinence education is not being released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as it does not support the Obama Administration’s objective – or that of vocal “safe sex” activists – of eliminating all abstinence-education funding."

To learn more, read this Aug. 18 news report from Catherine Snow with CitizenLink.

Annual ‘Purity Day’ for Youth Event is Next Thursday, April 15

Paying your income taxes isn't the only exciting thing in store for you next week!

On Thursday, April 15, Oklahoma Family Policy Council and the Kids Eagerly Endorsing Purity (KEEP) Program will host some 300 teenagers inside the state Capitol (4th Floor Rotunda) for the annual Purity Day event.

Public, private, and homeschooled students from across Oklahoma will hear from several motivating abstinence speakers, including University of Oklahoma football and basketball players, and be encouraged in their personal commitments to purity and sexual abstinence-until-marriage.

It's not too late to get your class, youth group, or students involved. If you wish to participate, just call OFPC at (405) 787-7744 or email gpoteat@okfamilypc.org and tell us you wish to participate in Purity Day at the State Capitol.

Univ. of Penn Study Reports Effectiveness of Abstinence-Only Education

You may have seen news reports this week about a new University of Pennsylvania study, published in the February, 2010, issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The study by John Jemmott, III, Ph.D. and two other colleagues shows what absinence proponents already know: abstinence-only programs for youth work better to prevent or delay sexual activity than other alternatives. Here's an overview:

Six hundred sixty-two urban African-American kids, both boys and girls, with an average age of 12.2 years, were part of a randomized controlled trial. Some kids received eight hours of character-based, abstinence-only instruction, similar to what is presented in OFPC's KEEP Program. Other children got eight hours of safer sex/condom use instruction. Still others got eight to 12 hours of a comprehensive sex education (CSE) program. Finally, other youth received eight hours of instruction in just a general health promotion course, which did not mention sexuality or contraception at all.

Two years later, only one-third of students who had received the abstinence-only course self-reported having had sexual intercouse, compared with about half of the control group. According to researchers, abstinence-only worked well with these inner-city kids! The other kids that got comprehensive sex ed instruction had just as much sex as the control group; CSE showed no effectiveness to prevent or delay sexual intercourse, although CSE did reduce students' self-reports of having multiple sexual partners.

Here's the significance: the Penn study shows early intervention is important and effective among urban youth to decrease sexual intercourse, STDs, HIV, and pregnancies, and for a long period, in this case two years, following the intervention.

Teen Pregnancy: Bogus Problems, Bogus Solutions

Regarding Abstinence Education, in a Jan. 27 report from Washington, D.C., Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Robert Rector said:

"The Guttmacher Institute recently released a report raising alarm over a one-year increase in teen pregnancy. "Safe sex" experts quickly pinned the blame on abstinence education.

Interesting, the decade after the federal government began its meager funding of abstinence education, teen pregnancy fell steadily. Safe-sex experts never linked the decline to abstinence education. But when the news went bad, they swiftly identified abstinence programs as the culprit.

But did teen pregnancy actually rise in 2006, as Guttmacher claims? It depends on what you mean by "teen." For most people, "teen pregnancy" implies pregnancy among high school girls under age 18. According to Guttmacher's own data, the pregnancy rate for 15-17-year old girls barely changed, and the rate for girls 14 and under (the group most affected by abstinence programs) actually dropped.

By contrast, the pregnancy and birth rates for young adult women aged 18 and 19 rose sharply.

The rise in pregnancy and birth in this age range is part of a much larger story: the collapse of marriage and explosive growth of out-of-wedlock births in lower income communities.

Between 1997-2007 very few non-martial births in comparison occurred to minor girls; most were to less-educated young adult women aged 18-26. In the grand scheme of things, the issue of "teen" pregnancy is dwarfed by its much larger cousin, the disintegration of marriage. Marital collapse is a catastrophe for taxpayers and society in general; the welfare costs alone exceed $250 billion per year. Of the 1.7 million children born out of wedlock in 2007, only 136,000 (or 7%) had mothers under the age of 18.

I believe the Left hypes "teen pregnancy" to support their agenda of condom promotion and permissive sex education in the public schools. When lower income men and women were surveyed about access to condoms and prevention methods very few stated the reason for pregnancy as lack of access to birth control."

Why do organizations like Oklahoma Family Policy Council stay committed to the message of abstinence? We believe it's good public policy, it's 100% safe, and it's the best message for our teens. The K.E.E.P. (Kids Eagerly Endorsing Purity) Program is alive and advancing the cause of healthy choices among teens. Saying no to sex before marriage and no to drugs and alcohol is a right message for teens today. True abstinence is the message parents 91% of parents want schools to teach their child (according to a Zogby poll).

Mike Jestes, Executive Director
Oklahoma Family Policy Council

Abstinence Training Set for Mid-January in Both Tulsa, OKC

Here are the details regarding KEEP's semi-annual basic volunteer teacher training workshop:

Thursday and Friday, Jan 14-15, 2010
Tulsa
Cornerstone
8801 W. 41st
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, Jan. 15-16, 2010
Oklahoma City
Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church
7336 W. Britton Road
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

If you've ever thought about volunteering to make a difference in the lives of Oklahoma teens, this is your opportunity to learn how to teach abstinence-until-marriage instruction to them through OFPC's KEEP Program. These KEEP workshops are always free to participants.

Also, past attendees are always welcome to come refresh your skills!

Please call OFPC at (918) 610-KEEP (Tulsa) or (405) 787-7744 (OKC) to let us know you will be attending. Thanks.