Privately, a number of the health teachers in our school district have expressed to me their intense frustration about this. They see that many of their students are sexually active and yet even as health teachers they are prohibited by the rules of the abstinence only sex education curriculum from providing the important information their students need about STD/STI prevention. They feel as I do that the Bush Administration’s abstinence only sex education policy currently in place in most of our nation’s public schools is a disservice to young people and is not in the best interest of solid public health policy.

A friend alerted me to the Center for Inquiry’s
position paper “Public Health and Contraception,” by Margaret B. Brown and I’ve begun sending the suggested letters to many of the decision makers Washington. Purchasing a subscription to The Skeptical Inquirer seemed like an excellent way to support the good work of your organization and continue to educate myself at the same time.

Thank you for the wonderful work you do at CFI.

Teri C

We learned abstinence-plus when I was in high school. The only way to completely prevent pregnancy and sexual diseases is to not have sex, but we were taught about all the options, for both present AND future reference.

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