Sexual Activity Rises, Condom Use Declines Among High School Youth
Statement by Valerie Huber Executive Director of
Parents for Truth and the National Abstinence Education Association concerning Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Report
Washington, DC (June 5, 2008) — “The new 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study on teen sexual behavior, taken together with the CDC report that 1 in 4 teen girls have at least 1 STD signals a Red Alert. Sadly, the situation will continue to worsen as long as the predominant message teens receive in school is contraceptive sex education. Currently 68% of schools provide contraceptive sex education that typically gives teens a green light to activity that puts them at great risk for acquiring STDs or which serve as gateway-to-intercourse activities. Fewer than 1 in 4 students receive an abstinence-centered education that provides children with practical skills for maintaining or regaining abstinence. Taxpayers and parents should be outraged with the content of this education and the devastation it has caused to children. They should demand abstinence-centered education be implemented in their local schools. That’s the purpose of our Parents For Truth campaign. It is not right that our children should suffer for a failed public health approach. They deserve the risk avoidance strategies contained in abstinence education, which provides all the information teens need to make healthy sexual decisions. Research shows that abstinence education delays sexual onset, helps sexually experienced teens discontinue their sexual activity, and currently sexual active teens reduce number of partners while using condoms at the same rate as their peers.”
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To schedule an interview with Ms. Huber,
please contact Peter Robbio (x. 116) at 703-683-5004.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim Scheiderer
or Peter Robbio
703.683.5004