Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently introduced the "Responsible Education About Life" (REAL) Act. This bill would provide $208 million dollars in federal grants for so called comprehensive sexuality education programs.
Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) programs, also known as abstinence plus programs, may have innocuous names but are not in the best interests of our youth. They are comprised of an aggressive agenda designed to influence the values and morals of our culture's children in favor of risky sexual behaviors.
(To find out more about CSE programs, visit http://www.Comprehensive-Sex-Ed.com)
To be clear, teaching students about reproduction and disease prevention is not at issue here. The issue is that these programs do much more than this. Central to these programs is the idea all lifestyle choices and sexual values in a society should be respected, including alternative gender identities, homosexuality, contraception, and abortion.
CSE isn't just about teaching kids about human reproduction - it's an attempt to influence the sexual and moral values of our culture via indoctrination. For all of the protests from abortion advocates about the imposition of values and morals on society, they are certainly trying to push their sexual values on children via the REAL act.
So far, the pro-life movement hasn't made too much noise about the REAL act. It seems that the only people really concerned with the REAL Act and CSE programs are those who are trying to get it implemented. For example, take a peek at the keep it real campaign kit The Keep it REAL Campaign Toolkit, and then find the pro-life version to oppose the act - you probably can't, because there doesn't seem to be any concerted effort to oppose it.
Why should the REAL Act and CSE programs be opposed? There are at least four strong reasons:
1. CRITICAL FUNDING FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Guess who is going to [eventually] get those grants - Planned Parenthood, SEICUS, and other abortion minded organizations. Funding received from these programs allows these organizations to establish and operate facilities in communities around the nation.
Where these groups already have operations, these funds provide financial stability, allowing them to expand their abortion agenda. So while technically these funds won't be used to perform abortions or prescribe contraceptives, they will keep the lights on.
Keeping the lights on at a Planned Parenthood only serves to keep abortion machines running and contraceptive pills flowing. It also gives Planned Parenthood a base of operations in communities - a base from which they can help to garner opposition to parental involvement laws and other pro-life legislation. This is a point that many pro-life advocates seem to miss.
2. PRESERVATION OF THE CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY
CSE programs simply serve to enforce the contraceptive mentality that has resulted in millions of abortions, widespread transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, and millions of out of wedlock births. This is the mentality we have been fighting via abstinence-only programs, and funding CSE will help to undermine these efforts.
3. INCOMPLETE AND OFTEN INACCURATE INFORMATION
Despite the claims, these programs are anything but comprehensive.
Missing from many of these programs is accurate information on contraceptive failure rates.
These so called comprehensive programs often lack accurate medical information on the health risks associated with hormonal contraceptives. These risks include various cancers, blood clots, depression, and even death. Also missing is the fact that teens who engage in pre-marital sex have higher incidence of suicide and depression.
Accuracy is also a problem. For example, the SIECUS CSE Guidelines, claim that abortion is only performed after 24 weeks to save the life of the mother, which is medically and legally inaccurate.
Finally, Natural Family Planning (NFP) isn't part of these programs. A recent independent study out of Germany concluded that NFP is as effective in preventing pregnancy as the birth control pill is. If these programs are supposed to teach children about how to prevent pregnancy in their adulthood, then teaching them about their own fertility and NFP would certainly be part of any comprehensive program - but it isn't.
4. MIXED MESSAGES
Programs that tell adolescents that abstinence is the best choice for them but then advises them on how not to abstain send mixed messages. Instead of teaching the how not to abstain, programs should focus on providing guidance on how to stay abstinent.
An unequivocal message needs to be sent to our youth, that abstinence is the only healthy choice and that it is the expected behavior of them. If it truly is better for teens to be abstinent, then that message must be vigorously emphasized, something that the REAL act fails to do.
GET INVOLVED
The REAL act is really an unhealthy plan for our youth, and it will financially strength pro-abortion organizations. Allowing more money to flow into the hands of abortion advocates only strengthens their power and influence.
Call your Representatives on Monday and them to oppose the REAL act. Tell them that while trying to reduce teen pregnancy is an admirable goal, the "Responsible Education About Life" (REAL) act is the wrong approach.
You can find your representatives at the following website http://www.capwiz.com/nrlc/directory/congdir.tt
A sample letter to send to your Senator or Representative:
Dear Senator/Representative,
I am writing to urge you to become oppose REAL, the Responsible Education about Life Act. The legislation, recently introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), would provide federal funding for so-called comprehensive sex education programs.
Preventing teen pregnancy and disease is an important goal, but comprehensive sexuality education programs are not the right methods for doing so.
These programs go far beyond teaching kids about human reproduction. These programs may have innocuous titles, but they are comprised of an aggressive sexual agenda designed to impose questionable sexual and social values on children - something that should not happen with taxpayer dollars.
Also, often these "comprehensive" programs are incomplete, lacking information on contraceptive failure rates, health hazards of oral contraceptives (blood clots, strokes, cancers, death), natural family planning, and the negative psychological effects pre-marital sex has on adolescents.
The REAL Act is a bad plan for preventing teen pregnancy and disease, and I urge you to oppose it.
