Advocacy Group Launches Ads Urging Massachusetts Gov. Patrick To Accept Federal Abstinence-Only Sex Education Grant

The National Abstinence Education Association on Wednesday launched an advertising campaign calling on Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to accept a $700,000 federal grant for abstinence-only sex education classes, the Boston Herald reports (Fargen, Boston Herald, 9/6). Patrick in July vetoed a provision in a state budget measure that would have accepted the federal grant.

According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, eight other states have rejected the funding, which requires that sex education curricula promote abstinence until marriage, and 12 additional states are considering not applying for the grant. In rejecting the funding, Patrick's administration cited a study commissioned by Congress and released in June that found students who participate in abstinence-only programs are as likely to have sex as students who do not participate in the programs.

Dorchester, Mass.-based Healthy Futures -- which teaches abstinence education to 7,000 middle school students annually -- has said it will lose about $500,000, or about 50% of its annual budget, without the federal grant. Rep. Brad Jones (R) in July said he will call on the Republican leadership in the Legislature to attempt to override Patrick's veto. However, Patrick could still decide not to apply for the grant if his veto is overridden (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/19).

According to the AP/Boston Globe, NAEA has spent $75,000 for the media campaign, which will issue ads in newspapers and on the radio. One of the ads says, "Deval Patrick Doesn't Want 11-Year-Olds Taught To Say 'No' to Sex." The group also has launched a Web site urging Patrick to accept the funds.

Patrick spokesperson Kyle Sullivan called the ad "a complete and utter distortion of the facts" (AP/Boston Globe, 9/6). JudyAnn Bigby, secretary of health and human services, said the Patrick administration will not change its mind, adding that although abstinence is part of comprehensive sex education, restrictions on the federal grant "require that we teach things that are either unfounded in fact or are very biased in terms of the values."

Valerie Huber, director of NAEA, said that Patrick's veto is "taking away the freedom of choice for Massachusetts schools to select abstinence education." She added that Massachusetts is the first state targeted in NAEA's ad campaign but that more could come (Boston Herald, 9/6).

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