The ACLU has launched a "Not In My State" campaign to pressure state governments to reject federal abstinence education funds. The State of Connecticut is one of those states. Looking at our State government's poor record on promoting abstinence education, it is doubtful the State will stand up to the pressure. Unlike Connecticut, the State of Massachusetts has just announced the implementation of its Abstinence Education Project, which is aimed at reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and lowering the teen birth rate. The program will be using the federal funds that the ACLU wants Connecticut to reject.

Fortunately, in Connecticut Catholic Charities receives substantial federal funds to teach abstinence education in public and private schools. In 2005, Catholic Charities ran programs in eight of Connecticut's major cities.  Also, other organizations, such as Carolyn's Place in Waterbury, help provide abstinence education to many public and private school students across the State.

The ACLU, along with other various groups, such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL, advocate for comprehensive sex education. This also appears to be the path supported by the Connecticut Departments of Health and Education. Last year a hearing was held on a bill calling for a study of abstinence education in our State. This bill was killed in committee. Local school districts currently are free to establish their own sexuality education programs. However, advocates of comprehensive sex education are hoping to establish mandatory guidelines and requirements for this type of sex education.  The debate over abstinence education versus comprehensive sex education is sure to occur again in the public arena within our State.  Many of those opposed to abstinence education call it a "just say no" program. In reality it is much more, addressing and focusing on many aspects of a young person's personality, not just the physical and sexual dimensions.   Parents of all school aged children should be aware of this movement within our State, and its possible effects on their child's development.  You may wish to study this issue more and discuss it with local school officials and your elected representatives. The emotional and physical wellbeing of our teenagers is at risk.     

What is Abstinence education?
       It is a program that teaches that human sexuality is primarily emotional and psychological, not physical; sexual activity should result from long-term emotional bonding between two individuals; sexual happiness is inherently linked to intimacy, love, and commitment - qualities found within marriage. The program encourages teen abstinence as a preparation and pathway to healthy adult marriage. An abstinence program contains sections on character education, relationship education, marriage preparedness, refusal skills, action and consequence education, parent-teen communication skills, and factual information on STD's and the ineffectiveness of condoms.
      It is not a program to teach students about the physical aspects of sexuality and its results. These excluded topics include detailed discussion on various forms of birth control (including condoms), various abortion alternatives and how one can be obtained, and different types of physical sexual activities. Some of these issues may be discussed in another part of the school curriculum, such as Health class, but to avoid sending a mixed message to teens these topics should not be combined with abstinence education.

Why Abstinence education? 

     It is in line with what parents believe -  A 2003 Zogby International Poll reveals:
               - 91% agree  adolescents should be expected to abstain from sexual activity during high school years    
               - 79% agree teen sexual activity is likely to have harmful psychological and physical
                 effects
              - 85% believe having many sexual partners at an early age may undermine the teen's
                ability to develop love, intimacy, and commitment.
              - Only 8% believe teaching teens how to use condoms and providing free contraceptives to them is more important 
                 then teaching  about abstinence.

 It provides better protection against the harmful effects of early sexual activity than comprehensive sex education - Unlike a comprehensive sex education program, which teaches the mechanics of sexual activity, abstinence education helps the student develop values and  life skills as a means of avoiding early sexual activity and its negative effects. Comprehensive sex education tends to focus on teen pregnancy, and not enough on other implications of early sexual activity. It does not reflect an adult communities best effort to protect and nurture its young people.
- Despite the prevalence of comprehensive sex education in our public schools 20% of new STD cases reported each year occur in   adolescents.
- An interrelationship exists between early sexual activity and other at-risk behaviors: smoking, alcohol, drug use, etc.  Teen sexual activity has unhealthy consequences.
- Condom failure for preventing HIV is between 15 to 31 percent.
- Other risky sexual behavior is replacing intercourse.  36 % of teens 15 to 17 years old have had oral sex. This behavior among teens is increasing because erroneously it is not viewed as "sex" and that it is safer then intercourse.
- In Connecticut (2004) 77% of the cases of the STD Chlamydia (which may impact a woman's ability to have a child) were female. 34.2% of the cases were females between 15-19 years of age.  The Center for Disease Control sees the national increase in Chlamydia as a major problem for women. It is especially concerned about the cases reported in the 10-14 year old age group.  The cases of Chlamydia have increased nationally between 1987 and 2002 from 78.5 cases to 455.4 cases per 100,000 persons.                                    
       
Other Items of Interest supporting abstinence education

         Visit the National Abstinence Clearinghouse, www.abstinence.net, for more information.
         Visit The Medical Institute for Sexual Behavior, www.medinstitute.org, for health facts and educational material for teens. ( A good site for teachers, youth group leaders, parents)

*Teenagers who have sex and use drugs have an increased suicide risk, says a study in the 
 current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.... Teens who abstained from sex 
 and drugs had the lowest levels. Teens who dabbled in sex, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco were in 
 the middle. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Sept. 2004)

*If your school district is using a comprehensive "abstinence-plus" sex-education program, you
 should demand that it be renamed "abstinence-minus." ..The Heritage Foundation studied sex-
 education programs to determine if they offer what they claim -- a fair and balanced message
 about sex. "Comprehensive Sex Education vs. Authentic Abstinence: A Study of Competing
 Curricula" concludes they do not. About 70 percent of a true abstinence program focused on
 abstinence, according to the researchers. Abstinence-plus ones devoted only 5 percent -- and
 zero percent on healthy relationships and the benefits of marriage. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 
 09/28/04)

*Most teenagers are choosing abstinence, according to a government report ... Nationally, 53 percent of high schoolers said in 2003 that they were virgins, up from 46 percent
 in 1991, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior
 Surveillance survey. ... The finding points to a somewhat more cautious sexual ethic among
 young people in the wake of AIDS and shifting social expectations, experts said.
 "We're definitely having more students who have decided to delay sexual activity ... even [high
 school] seniors who have never had sex--and that is different." (Chicago Tribune, Illinois 
 5/21/04)

*Although some prevention programs claim that condom use protects partners from contracting
  sexually transmitted diseases, only abstinence provides one hundred percent protection
  against all diseases, since several serious infections are transmitted by skin to skin or skin to
  sore contact. The Center for Disease Control acknowledges the importance of abstinence for  teens and issued a national health objective for 2010 "to increase...the proportion of  adolescents in grades 9-12 who have never had sexual intercourse."  (British Medical Journal    04/10/0