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For Immediate
Release - June 8, 2001
For more information contact: Gary Daniels, NCAC - 212/807-6222
Press Conference:
Tuesday June 12, 2001, 11:00 AM (EST), Hilton Garden Inn, 815
14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
NEW YORK --
June 8, 2001. Thirty-five prominent national organizations will
release a Joint Statement Against Abstinence-Only Education on
June 12, 2001, at a national news conference in Washington, DC.
Spearheaded by the National Coalition
Against Censorship (NCAC) the groups are launching a public
education campaign to oppose the Congressional re-authorization
of federal funding for abstinence-ONLY education.
The press
conference will feature best-selling author Judy Blume, along
with Rev. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans
United for Separation of Church and State; Jerald Newberry
, Executive Director of the National
Education Association Health Information Network (NEAHIN);
William Smith, Director of Public Policy for the Sexuality
Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS); James
Wagoner, President of Advocates
for Youth; and Geny Cabral, a high school student from New
York.
The Joint
Statement Against Abstinence-Only Education, which is endorsed
by 35 organizations, including the Association
of Reproductive Health Professionals, Unitarian
Universalist Association, National
Education Association, Lambda
Legal Defense Fund, and other civil liberties, health, education,
youth, and religious groups, states that:
1. abstinence-ONLY education is censorship;
2. abstinence-ONLY education affronts the principle of church-state
separation;
3. abstinence-ONLY education silences speech about sexual orientation;
and
4. censorship of sexuality education is ineffective, unnecessary,
and dangerous.
"Abstinence-only-until-marriage
education denies young people vital information about human sexuality,"
says William Smith of SIECUS. "We believe that education is society's
greatest obligation and that includes teaching young people about
sexuality," says Jerald Newberry of the National Education Association
Health Information Network. Major scientific and medical groups
reject abstinence-ONLY as ineffective and potentially harmful.
"Government-funded programs limit education to one 'approved'
message about sexuality, a message long associated with certain
religious beliefs. But public schools have an obligation to meet
the educational needs of all students, including those who have
questions about sexual orientation or simply want more information
to prepare them better for adult life," added Joan Bertin, Executive
Director of NCAC.
"The purveyors
of abstinence-ONLY education say they are protecting children
from the dangers of sex," says Leonore Tiefer, PhD, a researcher
and sex therapist. "But all reputable evaluators have found such
programs woefully inadequate to prepare young people for the complexities
of sex in the 21st century. By suggesting, falsely, that condoms
and contraception don't work, abstinence-ONLY actually puts students
at risk."
Recent surveys
show an overwhelming majority of parents support comprehensive
sexuality education, which includes both abstinence and contraception.
However, the federal abstinence-ONLY program specifies that the
"exclusive purpose" of the education MUST be to "teach that a
mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage
is the expected standard of human sexual activity" and that "sexual
activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have
harmful psychological and physical effects."
The Joint
Statement Against Abstinence-Only Education, a Fact Sheet on Why
First Amendment Supporters Should Oppose Abstinence-Only Sex Education,
and an online press kit are available by clicking here.
Organizations
Endorsing the Joint Statement Against Abstinence-Only Education:
ACT
UP/New York
Advocates for Youth
American Booksellers Foundation
for Free Expression
American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU)
American Medical Student Association
Americans United for Separation of
Church & State
Association of Reproductive Health
Professionals
Boston Coalition
for Freedom of Expression
Boston Women's Health Book Collective
Catholics for Free
Choice
Center for Reproductive Law & Policy
Center for Women Policy
Studies
Feminists for Free Expression
First Amendment Project
International Women's Health Coalition
Justice & Witness Ministries, United
Church of Christ
Lambda Legal Defense & Education
Fund, Inc.
Mass MIC (Massachusetts Music
Industry Coalition)
Mothers' Voices
National Abortion and Reproductive
Rights Action League
National Coalition Against Censorship
National Education Association
National Network for Youth
National Women's
Health Network
NOW Legal Defense & Education
Fund
Online Policy Group
People for the American Way
Physicians for Reproductive Choice
& Health
Planned Parenthood Federation
of America
ProChoice Resource
Center
Sexuality Information & Education
Council of the United States
Society for the Scientific
Study of Sexuality
Third Wave Foundation
Unitarian Universalist Association
World Association
for Sexology
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