There's none there.

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Abstinence-pushers abstain from ethics

By RH Reality Check
Posted on April 9, 2007

Guest post by Scott Swenson first appeared on RH Reality Check.

The pious moralizing of social conservatives grates on the national
psyche, its hypocrisy evident for all to see. But it's the ethics of
social conservatives sucking tax dollars from public health programs and
personally profiting from them that causes concern. Congressional
leaders should not just redirect federal monies from failed
abstinence-only programs to proven public health strategies, they should
investigate thoroughly, for they are likely to find Corruption, with a
capital C, and that rhymes with T, and that stands for Trouble.

Last week, RH Reality Check wrote about the National Abstinence
Education Association (NAEA), and its affiliation with Creative Research
Concepts (CRC), makers of the Swift Boat ads in 2004. The team looks to
intimidate policy makers with threats of aggressive lobbying and public
relations campaigns, in the genre CRC redefined, smear and fear.

Today, we take a closer look at the leadership of NAEA, a group that has
profited from personal connections, public appointments, and the
publishing of...

... half-truths. These stories are known individually, but weaving them
together underscores the illegitimacy of the billion dollar
abstinence-only program and calls into question the ethics of those who
preach morality, and teach nothing proven, at taxpayer expense.

Valerie Huber, Executive Director, NAEA

Abstinence-only programs she ran in Ohio contained "false or misleading
information about abortion, contraceptives and sexually transmitted
diseases" so stated a study done by Case Western Reserve University
Department of Public Health. According to Hypothetically Speaking, a bio
of Huber states: "[her] program is still in its infancy, giving Valerie
the unique opportunity to develop and fine-tune it. Valerie is infusing
her Christian beliefs into this program."

It's just that some people's beliefs, Christian and otherwise, start
with truth telling and respect for freedom of religion; they believe
that is what kids should be taught and how government should be run.
Huber is not a public health expert, but an outraged mom who started a
program after her son's health teacher advised kids to use condoms if
they were having sex. She parlayed her outrage into an abstinence-only
program and was then appointed to a state job in the Ohio Department of
Health by former Gov. Bob Taft (R-OH).

As the supervisor of the Ohio Department of Health's abstinence-only
program, Huber attempted to secure a state contract for a company she
was involved in. She was suspended by the department in 2006 when she
was found guilty of ethics violations. Huber was represented by an
attorney with ties to the Ohio Republican Party and the heir to the
corrupt Taft regime, failed gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, as
reported in the Ohio newspaper, the Gay People's Chronicle.

Bruce Cook, Board Director

Like Valerie Huber, Cook was caught with his hands in the cookie jar. As
the Chairman of the Georgia State Department of Human Resources he used
his public position to promote his private business, the abstinence-only
program Choosing the Best.

While serving the citizens of Georgia, Cook cut funding for teen
pregnancy prevention programs, closing 39 centers that provided services
in an effort to replace them with just five that taught abstinence-only.
He also cut family planning funding that left 64,000 women without
services, while he worked to create wealth for himself.

Cook, however, argued the cuts targeted prevention programs that don't
show "measurable results"--despite data showing lower teen pregnancy
rates in counties with teen health centers.

According to Creative Loafing:

Some of the teen centers handed out condoms, and because Cook is
known as an outspoken evangelical Christian who earns a living
publishing abstinence-only educational materials, many DHR insiders saw
the move as an attempt to impose his own far-right ideological agenda on
public health policy.

Then, in October 2004, Cook appeared at a DHR-funded conference on
abstinence education, where he touted his own book and promoted the
programs offered by his for-profit company, Choosing the Best.

Around the same time, the DHR board decided to keep the teen centers
open but mandated that at least half of their educational content adhere
to strict, abstinence-only guidelines. Only after CL reported the
potential windfall for Cook's business did he announce he would no
longer sell materials to DHR subsidiaries. Cook's company had been
criticized in a national study for providing misleading health
information, such as exaggerating failure rates for condoms.

Anne Badgley, Board Director

Anne Badgley started the abstinence-only program Heritage in South
Carolina, and was a fundraiser for President Bush. Her investment in him
paid off well, as his administration has diverted millions of taxpayer
dollars to her organization. Badgley was removed from her volunteer
position leading the abstinence-only programs in South Carolina, where
she was described as "controversial" by the Charleston Post and Courier.

School District Superintendent Ron McWhirt made the decision last
week, saying that the "health and sex education program is too important
and sensitive to be led by a volunteer who cannot be held accountable as
a school district employee."

Badgley might be more comfortable in a Burka because her Heritage
materials suggest that "girls have a responsibility to wear modest
clothing that doesn't invite lustful thoughts," according to Tell Them
SC.

LeAnna Benn, Board Director

LeAnna Benn started Teen-AID in Spokane, Washington. While touting the
success of her materials and program, encouraging communities to buy
them, she was routinely asked to furnish information about where the
materials were being used. She said she hadn't kept track. While that
lack of accountability won't get you in hot water with the ethics
committee, it certainly raises questions about the integrity of the
program and her sense of accountability. According to a journalist who
has reviewed materials put out by Teen-Aid:

I have examined several of Teen-Aid's items, including both
Sexuality, Commitment & Family and Me, My World, My Future. All the
pieces that I have seen are overtly polemical in both purpose and style,
all rely on obvious and outrageous distortions, and some deal in
pseudoscience whose falsity will be evident to anyone who has had any
respectable education at all.

According to People for the American Way "the curricula are filled with
sexist bias, religious bias and racist and classist comments. For
example, the text editorializes against marriages across class
boundaries:

Sociologists have found that when similar economic backgrounds
(`social class') and educational levels are disregarded by couples,
marriage adjustment is very difficult. Different cultural backgrounds
are also hurdles too high for some couples to negotiate.

The curricula provide no information on sexual orientation, and depict
non-traditional families in a negative light.

Scott Phelps, Board Director

Scott Phelps is the Vice Chairman of the Abstinence & Marriage Education
Partnership.

Phelps' teaching of abstinence was described in the New York Times as a
one-way street, "At no point do the teachers invite questions, which
could pull the classes into unplanned areas." A student who attended the
class reviewed Phelps' class by saying ''they shouldn't hide anything
that we need to know to keep safe.''

In what Fact-Esque calls a "Pro-Cancer Statement," Scott Phelps said,
"Sexually transmitted diseases in the United States will not be
contained by injecting vaccines into pre-adolescents in anticipation of
promiscuous behavior," referring to the proven ability of the HPV
vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, but the unproven claim that it will
lead to promiscuity. As columnist Nick Kristoff observed about emergency
contraception, "umbrellas don't cause rain."

Phelps has railed against gay men fo spreading AIDS, but has little to
say about spreading AIDS to women through heterosexual marraige as he
works against contracpetion and empowering women to make life decisions
about whether and when to have children.

Joanne Mackenzie, Board Director

Joanne Mackenzie started the abstinence program WAIT Training. SIECUS
concludes of WAIT Training, "its reliance on messages of fear and shame
make it inappropriate for schools."

According to Fundiewatch, Mackenzie said, "I don't want kids to equate
sex with disease. I want them to equate sex with love and tenderness and
long-term romance, and all those yummy things that the heart longs for."

Yes, but love and tenderness would also involve truth and the
information, trust and respect for teens to make responsible life
decisions for themselves, based on respect for their bodies and their
partners. That would be yummiest of all.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but after writing this piece I need
a shower, and not a cold one, a hot one. I feel so dirty.

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http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/50346/#more
--
John #1782

"We should always be disposed to believe that which appears to us to be
white is really black, if the hierarchy of the church so decides."

- Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) Founder of the Jesuit Order.