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Saturday, April 9, 2005

Abstinence-Only Not for High Schools

By Jackie Jadrnak
Journal Staff Writer
    By the next school year, about a half-million dollars in abstinence education money funneled through the Department of Health will target students in sixth grade and younger.
    That policy, announced Friday by Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham, drew immediate opposition from Laurel Cordova Edenburn, head of the New Mexico Abstinence Education Coalition.
    She said the change would be ineffective in preventing teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases and would violate federal guidelines for how the money should be spent. The money, under law, is targeted to "groups which are most likely to bear children out of wedlock"— mainly high school students, she said.
    Grisham said she intends that abstinence would be included in sex-education programs, but that the abstinence-only approach would be taken only in younger grades. This is a departure from common practice in most states, which target federal abstinence funding to the older students, she said.
    "All data in New Mexico suggests sexual contacts and behaviors are occurring earlier and earlier," Grisham said. "Fifteen percent of sixth-graders are engaging in sexual behaviors."
    Last year, 3,004 cases of chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, were reported in New Mexicans 15 to 19 years old. That same age category saw 4,596 births in 2003.
    For those reasons, it's important to give comprehensive information, including birth control and disease prevention, in the later grades, Grisham said.
    Edenburn contended dropping the abstinence message in later grades would eliminate the reinforcement needed just at the time that young people are considering sexual activity. But Grisham said education programs would not drop the message but would simply add others to it.
    The Department of Health's approach was endorsed by Kirbie Platro, a 15-year-old sophomore at Highland High School and member of Young Women United. "I'm proud that my little sister, who is 11, will know the correct information earlier," she said. "We should have better sex education in middle school and high school that provides the real information we need."