Open Letter to President George W. Bush

April 17, 2004

Dear President Bush:

We are young people, parents, community leaders, researchers and advocates who urge you to support increased funding for comprehensive sexuality education, which includes abstinence, as an important tool to protect the lives and health of America’s youth.

For years, credible scientific research has repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of responsible sex education. Study after study has proved that responsible sex education and HIV education programs that include both abstinence and contraception can delay sexual activity, reduce sexual activity, and increase contraceptive use.1 These are important goals that we all share.

The efficacy of abstinence-only programs, meanwhile, has not been proven, and experts have cautioned against continued funding for abstinence-only education.2 In 2001, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found no credible studies of abstinence-only programs showing any significant impact on participants’ initiation of or frequency of sex.3

In spite of this scientific evidence, you have repeatedly vowed to increase funding for abstinence-only education. Abstinence-only programs can harm teens by failing to provide them with accurate and complete information on contraception, and denying them the information they need to protect themselves and make responsible decisions when and if they become sexually active.

Moreover, most parents support the teaching of responsible sex education in schools.4 They want secondary school sex education to provide more information, not less, than is currently conveyed. Parents overwhelmingly believe that how to use condoms (85 percent) and other birth control methods (84 percent), as well as how to discuss them with partners (88 percent), should be taught in schools.5

We believe that your allegiance to abstinence-only education is not only out-of-step with established scientific research and the American public, but it also imperils the lives and health of youth in America and overseas. Abstinence is a necessary component of any sex education program but is insufficient by itself.

We call upon you to rescind your support for abstinence-only programs and pledge to fund comprehensive sexuality education (including abstinence) for our youth.

Sincerely,

34 Million Friends of UNFPA
Adolescent Outreach Program, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles
Afrihealth Information Projects/Afrihealth Optonet Association
Hollywood Teen Community Project
Kaiser Permanente Educational Theater Programs
National Network for Youth
Pacific Institute for Women's Health
Planned Parenthood Los Angeles
Planned Parenthood Orange/San Bernardino
UCLA Bixby Program in Population and Reproductive Health
UCLA Reproductive Health Interest Group
Women and Youth Supporting Each Other (WYSE)

Individuals

NOTES:

1. Douglas Kirby, “Emerging Answers: Research Findings on Programs to Reduce Teen Pregnancy” 88-95 (The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy 2001).

2. Id. at 85-88, 95; see, e.g., Committee on HIV Prevention Strategies in the United States,
Institute Of Medicine, No Time to Lose: Getting More from HIV Prevention 118-20 (National
Academy Press 2001).

3. Kirby, supra note 1, at 88, 95.

4. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), “Sex Education in America: A Series of
National Surveys of Students, Parents, Teachers, And Principals” 30-31 (2000); Press
Release, KFF, “National Study on Sex Education Reveals Gaps Between What Parents Want
and Schools Teach” 1 (Sept. 26, 2000).

5. KFF, Sex Education, supra note 4, at 30-31.

This open letter is drawn from information provided by NARAL: Pro-Choice America.