Students the World Over Prepare for 14 Feb Day of Purity
Birth Rates Among Females Aged 15–19 Years, by State, 2004
The New Guttmacher Study: Question It
Planned Parenthood Gave Away Morning After Pills in National Event
OPA Appointment Good for Abstinence Education; Keroack pressed to Step Down 4 Months Later
Abstinence Alone Protects Fully Against HIV, Ugandan First Lady Tells Youth
The American Public Health Association Adopts Policies Opposing Abstinence Education and Promoting EC Access at Pharmacies…
Students Around the World Prepare for Feb. 14th Fourth Annual Day of Purity. Students in America and around the world are celebrating Valentine's Day by helping educate their peers on the value of sexual purity.
Leading up to February 14, 2007, which is the Fourth Annual Day of Purity, young people are actively promoting the choice of purity by distributing flyers, wearing Day of Purity T-shirts and LivePure wristbands and organizing events in their schools, communities and churches.
Students who embrace the purity lifestyle are countering the Hollywood culture with its risqué television shows, vulgar jokes, tasteless commercials and graphic movies. They are inundated at school, on television and on the internet with messages that lust and exploration are normal and healthy and that they should give up traditional moral values and explore their sexuality early and often.
The Day of Purity is designed to raise awareness about the dangers of promiscuous behavior.
On February 14, 2007, thousands of students will rebel against the popular culture and celebrate the Day of Purity.
Day of Purity participants obtain a planning manual, wristbands, T-shirts, informative flyers and other useful information from the official Day of Purity web site, http://www.dayofpurity.org . Day of Purity also has a "myspace page" at http://www.myspace.com/dayofpurity and a page on http://www.facebook.com to reach students who want more information.
Rena Lindevaldsen, International Coordinator for the Day of Purity, explained, "The consequences of sexual promiscuity among youth are devastating. More than 3 million American teens are infected each year with sexually transmitted diseases. The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of developed countries, and teens account for almost 20 percent of the 1.3 million abortions performed each year in this nation. These problems result directly from the failure of our society to offer clear moral guidance. We encourage students to choose sexual purity to drown out the persistent message of sexual promiscuity promoted through television, the internet, movies, video games and even in some school sex education programs. Youth who have already engaged in sexual activity can make a fresh start on the Day of Purity. Students are sending a message to their friends, parents, churches, communities, legislators, and the media that it's time for a positive change in the culture." [Orlando, 6Feb07 LifeSiteNews.com; A project of Liberty Counsel]
Birth Rates Among Females Aged 15–19 Years, by State — United States, 2004
http://www.cdc.gov:80/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5551a6.htm?s_cid=mm5551a6_e
[CDC, MMWR Weekly January 5, 2007 / 55(51);1383]
PLANNED PARENTHOOD GAVE AWAY MORNING AFTER PILLS IN NATIONAL EVENT. The nation's largest abortion business in a national event 6Dec06 at hundreds of its local abortion centers gave away free packets containing the morning after pill [Emergency Contraception/EC].
Studies have shown the drug, which may possibly cause an abortion in limited circumstances, does nothing to reduce abortions.
More than 350 Planned Parenthood centers handed out free packets of the morning after pill to anyone over 18, including adult men who may be using it as a way of covering up sexual abuse.
People getting the morning after pills will get one dose, or two morning after pills that would otherwise cost them anywhere from $25 to $45 at a local pharmacy. Some women who sign up for the free pills will also qualify for free or reduced cost services — including abortions — at the Planned Parenthood facilities.
That men could get the drug to force women to use whom they have victimized sexually is particularly troubling for pro-life advocates.
"I think the fact they are handing this out to men is outrageous," Rachel Cunningham of the Iowa Family Policy Center told the Des Moines Register newspaper. "I don't think I've ever seen a campaign that would better enable abusive men to hide their crimes," she added.
Though Planned Parenthood's centers will require anyone getting the free morning after pills to be over the age of 18, the giveaway makes it easier for a teenager with an older sibling or friend to get the drug when they should be seeing a doctor instead.
Even with the requirement, girls under the age of 18 can still get the free Plan B drugs form the Planned Parenthood facilities as long as they fill out some paperwork and listen to a pro-abortion counselor.
Studies have shown that abor
tions in England went up at the morning after pill was made available over the counter there.
[DC; 6 Dec06 LifeNews.com, http://www.lifenews.com/nat2808.html; Abstinence Clearinghouse E-Mail Update, 12/13/06]
THE NEW GUTTMACHER STUDY: QUESTION IT. You may have read that the Guttmacher Institute, an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, released last week a new study claiming that 95% of all Americans have had premarital sex.
This incredible claim was not only for the current generation, but for all generations born since the 1940s.
Before you believe any of this study, there are a few things you should know:
1. Planned Parenthood is gearing-up for a fight against the abstinence-only message to our children and for an increase in government money for its programs. When this new study was announced, the author, Lawrence Finer, said that it was proof that money spent on the abstinence-only message was a waste and the money would be better spent on contraceptives and comprehensive sex education. A blatant hype of the PP agenda.
2. The study claims that its results are from an analysis of interviews of 38,000 people over a 20-year period. There was no objective collection of data, just interviews.
Researchers know that one of the least reliable methods of collecting data is the personal interview. People will frequently tell the researcher what they think he wants to hear. Others will embellish their sexual exploits to gain attention.
This "methodology" eliminates any way for other researchers to duplicate the findings.
So, the credibility of the entire study rests on the credibility of the organization conducting or interpreting the study. In this case, that organization is Planned Parenthood. ‘Nuff said.
American Life League issued a statement on the study. That statement was covered by many media sources and can be read, among other places, in THE HILL, the newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=THEHILLPOL.story&STORY=/www/story/12-21-2006/0004495787&EDATE=THU+Dec+21+2006,+05:14+PM.
[STOPP Report, 27December 2006, www.all.org/stopp; http://www.all.org/stopp/report.htm]
Abstinence Education Advocates Criticize Results of Guttmacher Sex Study. Advocates of abstinence education are criticizing the results of a new study of sexual habits conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
The report, based on interviews with 38,000 people in a government study, claims that about 95 percent of Americans engage in premarital sex. The institute is affiliated with Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business and a frequent critic of abstinence education programs. Lawrence Finer, a Guttmacher research director who headed the study, called it "reality-check research" in an interview with the Associated Press. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades," he said. Finer said that the results of the study show the federal government shouldn't be funding abstinence education programs. "It would be more effective to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active — which nearly everyone eventually will," he said. But Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defended such programs. "One of its values is to help young people delay the onset of sexual activity," he told AP. "The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease." Dr. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America says she thinks the numbers are inflated and don't accurately view the choices many teenagers and young adults are making to wait to have sex until marriage. "My eyebrows went up when I first saw the numbers," she told AgapePress, "and I thought that the results were a bit too pat because they fit so specifically into the agenda of Planned Parenthood and the Guttmacher Institute." [22Dec06, LifeNews.com]
Study finds 95% of Americans had premarital sex
'Reality-check research' finds the high rates extend to both genders, across generations. More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Institute, a private New York-based think tank that studies sexual and reproductive issues and which disagrees with government-funded programs that rely primarily on abstinence-only teachings. The study, released Tuesday, appears in Public Health Reports.
The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth. According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until
at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44, the study found.
Finer said the likelihood of Americans having sex before marriage has remained stable since the 1950s, though people now wait longer to get married and thus are sexually active as singles for extensive periods.
The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago. Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, he said, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.
He said the data calls into question federal funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds. He said it would be better to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active.
Under the Bush administration, abstinence programs have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the abstinence-only approach for teenagers helps young people delay the onset of sexual activity.
"The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease," he said. [AP, Dec. 19, 2006, by D Crary, NY http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4414413.html]
"The Ever-Present Spin by The Guttmacher Institute"
The Guttmacher Institute is up to its usual spin tactics in this "report" done by Lawrence Finer (posted below). Here is his spin: Attempt to show that nearly all Americans (95%) have had premarital sex; blame it on President Bush's support of abstinence-until-marriage sex education programs; recommend that these programs be defunded because they just simply don't give people the sexual information they need to protect themselves.
There is only one problem with Finer's spin: President Bush was not elected until 2000, and the latest survey questions (taken from the National Survey of Family Growth) upon which Lawrence Finer based his report occurred in 2002 — only two years after President Bush came into office. His administration had not yet had time to implement abstinence-education programs fully at the time that the survey occurred.
Here are the facts as reported by Robert Rector, who is known as the "Father of Welfare Reform." Based upon figures from 2002, Rector reported that the government had spent $12.00 to promote contraceptives for each $1.00 which the government had spent to support abstinence-only education. Therefore, the survey results upon which Finer based his report represent the consequences of over 36 years of permissive sex education, funded by the U. S. government.
Even as late as 2003, SIECUS (one of the leading pro-contraceptive organizations) was still receiving large amounts of federal funding (over $500,000) for its school health projects. Title X (founded in 1970) which provides for family planning and reproductive health care (e.g., contraceptives) received $288 Million in 2005.
In contrast, the federal funding stream in 2005 for abstinence-until-marriage programs was only around $178 Million.
Interestingly enough, after spendings tens of millions of dollars for over 36 years, the condom "safe sex" crowd still has not been able to convince teens to use condoms correctly and consistently. According to a report entitled Trends and Recent Estimates: Contraceptive Use Among U.S. Teens (released on August 2006 and written by Kerry Franzetta, Elizabeth Terry-Humen, M.P.P., Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D., and Erum Ikramullah), "More than one-half of sexually experienced male and female teens reported that they or their partners never or only inconsistently used condoms in the past year, therefore putting them at risk of acquiring an STI [sexually transmitted infection/sexually transmitted disease]."
The latest Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance (October 2004 – January 2006) from the Centers for Disease Control shows the following results:
"During 1991–2005, significant linear decreases occurred in the percentage of students who ever had sexual intercourse (54.1%–46.8%), who had sexual intercourse with >4 people during their lifetime (18.7%–14.3%), and who were currently sexually active (37.5%–33.9%)." This represents solid progress away from teens having premarital sexual relationships.
These results prove that as the government's support of abstinence-only programs has increased, teens are showing a decrease in sexual activity. There is a direct correlation.
The Guttmacher Institute's Lawrence Finer has attempted to twist the national survey data to fit his personal agenda; but the facts indicate that spending government money to support abstinence-until-marriage programs is showing positive results.
[Donna Garner, 20Dec06]
OPA APPOINTMENT GOOD FOR ABSTINENCE EDUCATION. Eric Keroack, M.D. (OBG) from MA, will oversee the federal Office of Population Affairs & its $283 million annual budget.
Keroack is the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, a nonprofit MA organization that runs 6 pregnancy centers in that state, offering free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and counseling, and works to “help women escape the violence of abortion”; it also promotes sexual abstinence.
Keroack’s appointment as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs does not require Senate confirmation. HHS assistant secretary for health, Dr. John Agwunobi: “[Keroack] regularly speaks to youth audiences on sexual risk behaviors and has been nationally recognized for his work on preventing teen pregnancy.” [17Nov06, AP; N.Valko RN; OPA – http://opa.osophs.dhhs.gov/; A Woman’s Concern -http://partners.awomansconcern.org/]
And just 4 months later…
Pro-Life Advocate Eric Keroack Steps Down, Pro-Abortion Groups Applaud. Eric Keroack stepped down from his position as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for HHS' Office of Population Affairs on Thursday. Pro-abortion groups applauded his resignation from the position because they didn't like having a pro-life advocate as the head of the agency that awards family planning grants. Keroack said he was vacating the position because of an unspecified action taken against his private medical practice in Massachusetts by state Medicaid officials.
As a result he felt he could no l
onger hold the position.
President Bush appointed Keroack, who works part time as the medical director the A Woman's Concern pregnancy center, to the post in November 2006. After that, abortion advocates launched a national campaign to oppose and discredit him because of his involvement.
According to Congressional Quarterly, Keroack had initiated an appeals process on the decision against him and he emailed colleagues saying it would "present a significant distraction to my ability to remain focused on my duties."
HHS Assistant Secretary for Health John Agwunobi said in a statement that the agency "will move forward as expeditiously as possible to fill this position."
IN a statement on the resignation obtained by LifeNews.com, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was ecstatic by the news. “It’s a good day for women's health. Keroack was unqualified to run the nation's family planning program," she said.
Richards added that that the Bush administration should appoint someone who is more friendly to birth control to the post to replace him.
During the debate over Keroack's appointment, which didn't require Senate confirmation, Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, called him a "highly qualified physician and well-respected for his work in pregnancy care centers."
"The attack on Keroack is part and parcel of the liberals' attack on President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, both of whom are pro-life and pro-abstinence and committed to women's and family health," Perkins explained.
He said Keroack's involvement the crisis pregnancy centers is an asset to his ability to do the job.
"In that role Dr. Keroack provided medical advice and counseling for women who are or think they may be pregnant. He led the way in bringing medical technology into the AWC system, whose focus is on prenatal and maternity care," Perkins said in a statement LifeNews.com received.
Some abortion advocates have claimed Keroack won't uphold federal programs, but Perkins said the physician would do his job but also be mindful of how abstinence can help as well.
"He has made clear that as DASPA he will follow the law as it relates to family planning, but abstinence and public health measures like partner reduction are in his portfolio as well," Perkins said.
The position oversees $283 million in annual family planning grants and also oversees a $30 million program that promotes abstinence education programs for teenagers. [30March07, Ertelt, LifeNews.com, DC]
ABSTINENCE ALONE PROTECTS FULLY AGAINST HIV, UGANDAN FIRST LADY TELLS YOUTH. Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda, has continued her strong support for the country’s successful abstinence campaign against HIV/AIDS with a statement encouraging youth to live lives of “love, faith and purity,” New Vision reported December 2.
"I would not be caught advising you to take any shortcuts or compromise your lives by using any device invented by man, such as condoms,” Mrs. Museveni told students at the Uganda Christian University, Mukono, for World AIDS Day.
Warning the young people that they should not be complacent as HIV infection rates rise, Mrs. Museveni asked them to encourage other students to abstain from premarital sex.
Ugandan President Museveni and his wife introduced a program encouraging sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity afterwards, in an attempt to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
The successful program has been harshly condemned by international organizations promoting condom use, but in fact Ugandan HIV transmission rates dropped by as much as 75% in some regions after the program was introduced, down to 5-7% from a high of 18%.
Uganda is in an ongoing struggle with Western NGOs pushing condom use in the country. UNICEF, the UNFPA, the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control are among those organizations relying on condom promotion for AIDS prevention in African nations. The UN has openly opposed the use of abstinence programs as a successful alternative to Western approaches on lessening virus transmission rates.
Criticism of the West’s emphasis on condom use has been growing, as HIV/AIDS transmission rates show no signs of slowing after years of condom promotion. Medical Journalist Sue Ellin Browder reported in June 2006 on evidence showing dramatic increases in condom distribution in African nations paralleled an explosion in HIV/AIDS infection rates. “So far, there’s no good evidence that condoms will reverse population-wide epidemics like those in sub-Saharan Africa,” Browder wrote for Crisis Magazine.
Related: Medical Journalist Says Reliance on Condoms Spreads HIV/AIDS http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06062304.html
Uganda AIDS Prevention Success Being Undermined by Infuriated UN Condom-Pushers
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05020408.html
UN Anger Over Uganda's Successful Abstinence Program Fueled by Loss of Funds Says Researcher
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05101404.html
Uganda's First Lady Warns Teens against Condom Use http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04011205.html
UGANDAN ABSTINENCE AIDS PREVENTION PROGRAM EQUIVALENT TO A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE VACCINE, RESEARCHERS FIND http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/apr/04043004.html [6Dec06, Schultz MUKONO, Uganda, LifeSiteNews.com]
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION (APHA) RECENTLY ADOPTED 22 POLICIES addressing a broad range of issues in public health from preparations for an influenza pandemic and opposition to abstinence-only education to trans fat restrictions and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
The following is one of three policies passed as latebreakers and will serve as interim policies until confirmed by the APHA Governing Council at its 2007 meeting: the APHA has adopted Compassion & Choices' euphemisms for assisted suicide:
LB-06-02 End-of-Life Choices – Urges health educators, policy-makers, journalists and health care providers to recognize that the choice of a mentally competent, terminally ill person to choose to self-administer medications to bring about a peaceful death is not “suicide,” nor is the prescribing of such medication by a physician “assisted suicide.” Urges terms such as “aid in dying” or “patient-directed dying” be used to describe such a choice.
200610 Concerns with Abstinence Education – Raises questions about U.S. programs that promote abstinence only until marriage as a universal strategy in light of statistics that show most Americans have sex many years prior to marriage. Notes that significant ethical and human rights concerns arise when abstinence is presented to adolescents as the sole choice, or when health information regarding other choices is limited or misrepresented. Calls for federal funding for comprehensive sexuality education.
200611 Ensuring Emergency Contraceptive Access at Pharmacies – Urges pharmacist associations, pharmacies and schools of pharmacy to work with reproductive health and public health professionals to conduct ongoing educational programs for pharmacists about dispensing contraception, including emergency contraception. Outlines the time-sensitive nature of emergency contraception.
While obviously in support of safer sex and non-marital sexual activity, the APHA also passed this policy — 200612 School and Child Care Hand Hygiene – "Acknowledges that keeping hands clean is one of the most effective methods of preventing the spread of colds, diarrhea, influenza and food-borne illness…" [ED. It is amazing that the APHA is so concerned about the spread of these diseases on children's hands but seems to have no concern at all for the exposure of our young people to potentially deadly STDs/AIDS through non-marital sexual activity. Yet, through sexual abstinence/chastity, STDs could obviously be stopped cold.]
Descriptions of the measures approved by the Association’s Governing Council during its 134th Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 4-8 are brief summaries; to read the full 2006 policies, visit <www.apha.org/legislative/policy/index.htm>. [20Dec06, http://www.apha.org/news/press/2006/policies07.htm, Press release, American Public Health Association Media Relations, [email protected]]