Boston Globe, September 14, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Two organizations that promote sex education are taking an unorthodox approach in their fight against federal funding of abstinence-only programs.
Relying on a little-used law that allows ''affected persons" to seek the correction of information disseminated by federal agencies, the groups said yesterday that the abstinence education programs contain erroneous and ineffective information.
They asked the Health and Human Services Department to correct it.
About three-quarters of the challenges made under the two-year-old Information Quality Act have come from industry groups concerned about regulations.
The two sex-ed organizations, Advocates for Youth and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, support educating youth about contraceptives as a means of avoiding pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
''We'll use this and any other tool at our disposal to ensure that youth receive honest and accurate sex education," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth.
The groups contend that the curriculum used by most Community-Based Abstinence Education grantees contains false information. They called on the Administration for Children and Families to cease sponsorship of programs that fail to provide medically accurate information.
For example, dozens of grantees teach that condom use reduces the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS by 69 percent to 90 percent. The two groups say that such instruction greatly underestimates the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV/AIDS and that the numbers are from a study the department itself described as having conclusions based on ''serious error."
''Never in recent history has so much government money been put into so many programs with so little oversight and so little proven impact," Wagoner said.
Federal officials did not have an immediate reaction to the challenge. Wade Horn, who oversees the Administration for Children and Families, told Congress earlier this year that it should continue funding the abstinence programs when they take up welfare overhaul legislation.
''They help people develop inner strength, help them take charge of their lives and redirect their energies into healthy and productive choices," Horn said. ''While the evidence is still being collected, we are seeing the benefits of a strong abstinence message."