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DEBATE 'Chastity czar' hopes teens will embrace abstinence The new chief of the federal program to promote sexual abstinence — called the "chastity czar" — says he wants to make it socially acceptable for American teenagers to just say “no” to sex. Wade F. Horn, 50, assistant secretary for children and families in the Department of Health and Human Services, says youths who don't engage in sex now “don't feel supported in that choice.” “They believe the broader culture sees them as odd, that they are strange if they commit to abstinence,” Horn said. “I want to give young people a fighting chance to make the healthiest choice to preserve their futures.” Horn says he also wants to reach teenagers who have already been sexually active with the message that “you no longer have to be sexually active.” He said he rejects the notion that “once the ice cream is out of the freezer, it's already melted.” A clinical child psychologist who led the Bush administration's initiative to promote healthy marriages and oversees the Head Start program, Horn says he's “passionate” about teenage sexual abstinence. “I'm a goal guy,” he said. “The only thing that's unstoppable is time.” Horn blames Hollywood for giving “irresponsible” messages that casual sex has no consequences. “It's undeniable that the only 100 percent effective way of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease is to be sexually abstinent,” Horn says. The huge government spending bill that Congress again
takes up this week contains an additional $30 million for
abstinence-only education, bringing the total to $168 million for the
2005 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Horn will oversee $50 million that
goes to states and $105 million that goes to community organizations to
teach abstinence to 12- to 18-year-olds. Congress first set aside money
for abstinence-only education programs in 1999, allocating $80 million
in grants to religious, civic and medical groups. Horn is sharply
critical of comprehensive sex education programs that include
information about using contraception and condoms, saying they create
“mixed messages” that can cause confusion. For example, he says,
“Imagine I am leaving on a trip and my wife says, 'I love you and I
trust you, but bring a condom in the briefcase just in Mike McGee, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, disagrees. Horn's approach is “like the stern dad who says I'm in control of my kid, and I'm going to tell him not to do it and that's going to be sufficient — and it's just not,” McGee said. “To really nurture kids you've got to give them some guidance and some help to make some critical decisions.” McGee says abstinence advocates ignore reality and that teen sexual activity is inevitable. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 61 percent of graduating high school seniors have had sex. Cynthia Dailard, a senior public policy analyst for the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a population control advocacy organization, said young people who hear an abstinence-only message and take a virginity pledge are less likely to use contraception when they have sex. “It's hard to keep a condom in your pocket when you've promised not to have sex,” Dailard said. A report issued last week by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, questioned the effectiveness of the federally funded abstinence programs. “I don't think we ought to be using taxpayer money for any program that's not proven to be effective,” Waxman said. “At a time when we have all these sexually transmitted diseases exploding all around us, particularly HIV-AIDS, we need effective programs.” Independent researchers have been unable to prove any
significant benefits from abstinence-only education. At Columbia
University, researchers determined that teenagers who take virginity
pledges may delay sexual activity, but 88 percent have sex before
marriage.
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