Statewide Chair Mary McLellan Heritage Community Services Regional Chairs Mariscia Cooper (Pee Dee) Charlie Lybrand (Lowcountry) Lenna Neill (Upstate) Rev. Randy Riddle (Grand Strand) Dr. Roger Rollins (CSRA) Charlotte Valentine-Green (Ace Basin)   Advisory Council Eugene Bacote Darlington School District Dr. Vera Bailey Hilton Head Preg. Care Center Pamela Berry Colleton Fire and Rescue Dr. Vonda Calcutt Lowcountry Ctr. Diabetes Sen. Chip Campsen Charleston/Berkeley Rev. Chuck Coward Charleston Outreach Robin Crosby Colleton County Ligure Ellington Ret.Capt. Charleston City Police Dr. Randy Goings Chiropractic Physician Faye Hill Lowcountry Pregnancy Center & SC Association Pregnancy Care Centers WC Hoecke Fatherhood Practioner Leroy Lewis Upward Bound at Cof C Norman L. Moore, Jr. Colonel, USAFR(Ret) Cyndi Mosteller Comm. for Higher Education Alexia Newman Carolina Pregnancy Center Fred Payne Marriage Savers of Upstate Jerry & Barbara Seymour R& R Marriage Min. Ronald Shoupe Colleton County Dr. A. V. Strong A Better Way, Inc. (Gang Out) Dr. Robert Thomas Pulmonary Medicine Pastor Phil Thrailkill St. Luke UMC Hartsville Kelly Walker Upstate Fatherhood Coalition	January 6, 2011 SC Healthy Family Formation Coalition E-News!          The SC HFF Coalition keeps you informed of current developments regarding Healthy Family Formation. We will not waiver in our efforts to promote the best sexual health message which is to first build healthy relationships and wait until marriage to have sex. It is the only sustainable message where everyone wins.   What a difference a year makes!   Throughout 2010, ideology trumped science as so-called Safe Sex proponents (Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and Advocates for Youth) alarmed the nation with claims that abstinence education had failed and that teen pregnancy rates were out of control. Their goal was to completely dismantle any funding streams for abstinence education.    Following is a recap of some of the ups and downs in national family formation issues over the past year, keeping in mind that 70% of parents surveyed want their children to be taught abstinence until marriage. Parents have enormous influence over their children’s choices as well as local, state and national policies.      Often censored and distorted by the media is the fact that students receiving abstinence education at the middle and high school level are listening, and initiation of sexual activity and pregnancy rates for these 15-17 year olds remain the lowest in 20 years.   Why hide this information from the public?    To scare more and more school districts into exposing their adolescents to the so-called Safe Sex message!    Pure ideology, not science!   When teens are challenged to think about who they are, who they want to be in the future, and how they can achieve their goals by aspiring to high standards of behavior, they succeed!   These smart teens know that condoms and birth control are not enough to protect them. They know that even with ‘protection’, sex produces families and they want to form healthy families, not fragile families. They are so eager to learn about how to build healthy relationships outside of the context of sex and establish strong life-long marriages!      Recapping 2010 January began with a federal budget stripped of funding for Community-based Abstinence Education. Five year contracts for 176 national programs were broken and services to over a million teens would be cut by the end of September. Teen sex advocates intensified efforts to denigrate abstinence education and transfer support to condom-based programs.   Liberal media outlets reported ALARMING news that US teen pregnancy rates (15-19 year olds) had jumped 3% between 2005 and 2006; the first jump since 1990! This increase in teen pregnancies, later declared an aberration, was found only in the emancipated 18-19 year olds, not for the middle and high school students (15-17 year olds) where Abstinence Education has been overwhelmingly successful.   February surprised everyone by showcasing a successful abstinence-centered education program conducted by noted Safe Sex proponents Jemmott and Jemmott. Their program actually reduced initiation of sexual activity, reduced the number of partners, and did not deter the use of condoms if sexually active. Students in the program were significantly less likely to initiate sex with the abstinence-centered approach than with any other sex education strategy.   Apparently shocked with the success of the Jemmott program, teen sex advocates spent the rest of the month clarifying that the program was ‘completely different from current failed abstinence education’ and increased efforts to ban it nationwide.   A national campaign to discredit the achievements of abstinence education, focused on South Carolina, was launched throughout March to influence policy makers. By April, the alarming data used in January was ‘corrected’ stating that birth rates were back down 2 percent for 2008. Still censored was the information that the highest birth rates were among the 18-19 year olds and the lowest were for the 15-17 year olds.   In May, Federal solicitations were issued for teen pregnancy prevention grant proposals. $155 million would be awarded to winning proposals. The CDC released a national study in June that was largely ignored by the media except to declare that efforts at “preventing teen sex had stalled” and more Safe Sex programs were needed for all school age children.   Contrary to the media spin, a tremendous victory for abstinence educators was discovered in the CDC report.   The study revealed that 72% of girls and 71% of boys between 15-17 years of age were less likely to have ever had sex!   Throughout the Summer months, the administration refused to release its own Health and Human Services 2009 study, titled the “National Survey of Adolescents and Their Parents: Attitudes and Opinions about Sex and Abstinence”. (The findings revealed positive parental and teen support for abstinence education.)   Only after many Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests and widespread public protests was the report released. By that time, it was too late to reinstate funding for abstinence education.   In September/October, Funding announcements for $155 million per year for five years were awarded to mostly condom-based programs. Abstinence education programs were apparently not needed to prevent teen pregnancy! Community-based Abstinence Education programs prepared to close their doors.   By December, two reports were released to the media. The first was somewhat encouraging in that Teen birth rates for 2009 were reported to be the lowest in nearly 70 years. (However, keep in mind that teen pregnancy rates and abortion data were not yet available.)   Most exciting was an empirically researched and peer reviewed study in the Journal of Family Psychology. The researchers surveyed 2,000 couples to determine relationship satisfaction based on timing of sexual activity. They controlled for religiosity, relationship length, the number of sexual partners, and education.    The couples that delayed sex until marriage were 20% more satisfied with their relationship than couples that had sex prior to marriage. Bottom line, developing the relationship with healthy communication and commitment prior to sexual involvement, ideally within marriage, was determined to be the best sequence for married couples.   Healthy Family Formation Works! and SCHFF will eagerly promote it in 2011!   Follow the SC-HFF Coalition on Twitter!   Join the Heritage Keepers® Facebook Cause
	The South Carolina Healthy Family Formation Coalition (SC HFF Coalition) is organized and staffed by Heritage Community Services. The SC HFF Coalition promotes child and family well-being by providing opportunities for statewide communication about such issues as: adolescent pregnancy, unwed childbearing, fatherlessness, sexual exploitation of our youth, dating violence and domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, gang activity and youth violence.    Coalition members support healthy family formation initiatives that integrate character-based life skills, teen pregnancy prevention with an emphasis on abstinence-centered education, and the importance of fidelity-within-marriage.   Together we can impact our culture so that forming healthy families becomes a norm, rather than the exception, for South Carolina. Please, forward this E-News to interested friends, family and colleagues and ask them to consider joining the Coalition. Join/Subscribe Unsubscribe PRIVACY POLICY: Information you share will never be sold, rented, or given to any third party. Contact Mary McLellan , Statewide Chairman (843)654-7740 ext.122