From Congressman Camp

This is from my Congressman, Dave Camp's, Electronic newsletter that I receive regularly.

Secret Plan to Eliminate Funding for Abstinence Programs Advances in Washington, D.C.
ALERT: There is a push by some in Washington, D.C., to quietly eliminate federally funded abstinence only education programs – something that spurns all commonsense and is exactly the kind of misguided, out of touch approach that many of us find insulting. It is bad enough that in 2002 the federal government spent $12 promoting contraception-based sex education for every $1 spent on abstinence-only programs. Now, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco, CA) is backing a plan to completely eliminate funding for these programs.

This is absolutely the wrong message for the federal government to be sending to parents and teenagers and exactly the opposite kind of help we should be providing parents.

. . . (survey information from his constituents) . . .

FACTS: Originally created under the 1996 welfare reform act, “abstinence education” includes programs that have an exclusive purpose of teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity, and teach that:

• Abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage is the expected standard for all school age children;
• Abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems; and
• Giving young people the know-how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances.

PUBLIC SUPPORT: With those parameters it is no wonder a recent Zogby International poll found that parents overwhelmingly support and prefer abstinence education programs. The Zogby telephone survey, which contacted 1002 parents with kids between the ages of 10 and 16, had a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percentage points. The results were:

• Once parents understood what abstinence education teaches, six out of 10 parents preferred their child receive abstinence education to comprehensive sex education.
• 78 percent of parents think sex education classes in public schools should place greater emphasis on abstinence than contraceptive use.
• Almost 60 percent said abstinence education should be funded at higher levels.

I am grateful that I have a relatively honest, and relatively conservative representative in Congress. Camp is one of the very best. (He has faults, but there are no perfect saints in Congress.)

Why in the world would anyone, except a pedophile, want children to be sexually active? We need to be doing more to convince young people that they have a choice and don't need to listen to the demands of their bodies. Kids, and too many adults, don't realize how much social and personal damage is done by such behavior. (Or they know but will not allow themselves to believe it.)

Could you imagine if we taught drug education the same way we taught sex ed?

Drugs are dangerous but we know most of you are going to try them. In order to assure you survive your experiments, we are going to show you the safest way to mainline heroin.

Or Driver Ed?

We know you kids are going to speed, and that's dangerous, so we need to show you how to maintain control of your vehicle at 90+ miles per hour. It could save your life while you are disregarding the law.

Kids, whether they admit it or not, look to adults for guidance. What kind of guidance is this when we tell them promiscuous sex is all right? It could be argued that abstinences education isn't working, but as I see the number of unwed mothers who are still in school, it's pretty obvious that contraceptive training isn't working either.

I personally have no problem with kids learning about sex in school, but it MUST be taught in a moral framework. Sadly the enemies of the American Family control far too many school systems. (Not all, but far too many).