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
March 17, 2011
SC Healthy Family Formation Coalition E-News!
During the month of March,
Tell Them SC and their network
of Safe Sex proponents (including Planned Parenthood, Title X Family
Planning, SIECUS, Advocates for Youth, and New Morning Foundation) are
launching their annual assault on abstinence-centered education. They are
bombarding Legislators with e-mails and running ads on radio and TV
begging Congress to protect their lucrative ‘Teen Pregnancy Prevention’
funding streams.
Tell Them SC takes extreme
liberties with the term, ‘prevention’ since so-called Safe Sex education
does not seek to prevent the primary behavior causing pregnancies and
STDs. Instead they expect, and in some cases encourage, youth to have sex.
Can we really expect them to support primary prevention in the form of an
abstinent life style?
Currently the Safe Sex-perts are awash in $824 million annually of tax-payer dollars to promote their ‘sex without consequences’ agenda. Problem is - there are consequences.
The only ‘Safe Sex’ is
within a mutually monogamous long term relationship such as marriage. To
promote any other life style as safe and beneficial is deceitful and
dangerous for everyone.
Since 1996, Abstinence Education has succeeded
against all odds at reducing the percent of teens initiating and
continuing to have sex. Teaching youth to abstain until marriage and be
faithful in marriage is a positive health message promising a brighter
future.
Yet,
Abstinence-centered Education receives only
$1
for every $16 redirected towards Safe Sex
advocates.
The recent media reports on Teen and Young Adult Sex, based on 2010 data from the CDC's Monitoring the Nation's Health, reveal a dramatic drop in teens (15-17 years old) ever having sex since federal funding for Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education programs was allocated in 1996 under Welfare Reform. The data shows that between 1988 and 1995, when Comprehensive Sex Education (condoms and 'safe sex' advocacy) was virtually the only message, there was a disappointing 2% increase for girls and only a 14% decrease for boys in sexual intercourse.
However, after Abstinence Education received funding
in 1996 and programs were implemented according
to federal guidelines, sexual activity for 15-17 year old
teens began to
plummet.
By 2006-2008, the impact of Abstinence Education
was evidenced by a 27% decrease for girls
and a 33%
additional decrease
for boys
reporting they had EVER had sex.
Media reports
neglect to report that according to this most current CDC data,
less than 30%
of 15-17 year old teens surveyed have EVER had sex.
This means that more than 70% of high school age
students have
NEVER had sex
and practice abstinence.
This is all great news
because delaying sexual debut,
ideally until marriage, is the best way to reduce unwed pregnancies and
the
So, why are the Safe
Sex-perts so in-a-huff about this great news? Why are they quick to
discount that federally funded abstinence education could have possibly
had any impact, when the trend clearly shows that more teens and young
adults have been abstaining since 1996?
Moreover, why has this data
been hidden for the past 2½ years? So that abstinence education funding
could be eliminated and redirected to Safe Sex
proponents.
It seems that the federal
funding that was in place during the time of this amazing success
(1996-2008) should be re-instated so that the trend doesn’t change. Can we
afford to trend back towards the rates of unmarried teenage/young adult
sex that was occurring in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before
Abstinence Education had funding?
Can we really afford the
burgeoning entitlements that would ensue?
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
Please, forward this E-News to interested friends, family and colleagues and ask them to consider joining the Coalition.
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
