Massachusetts: Gloucester Teen Lobbies for Sex Education

On Monday, a delegation of teens lobbied at the Washington offices of Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry and Rep. John Tierney, urging the lawmakers to provide federal funding for comprehensive school-based sex education.

The youths are taking part in an interfaith sex education training initiative whose goal is to refocus money from abstinence-only education to comprehensive programs that include discussions of STDs and contraception. Kerry and Kennedy are co-sponsors of legislation aiming to do just that. The group wanted the members of Congress to know they will not lose the backing of all religious people for supporting comprehensive sex education.

The Rev. William Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, said the issue of sex education has been dominated by "the Christian right." "That's our fault," he said, "because we were not willing to raise an alternative religious voice."

Zoe Paddock, a Gloucester teen, was part of the lobby group. She said abstinence education "works until it doesn't." "Having the information doesn't mean you're going to use it," she said. Even people who wait until marriage to have sex need sexual health information, she added.

Massachusetts stopped accepting federal funding for abstinence-only education in 2007. Gloucester made international headlines when 17 girls at Gloucester High School became pregnant amid reports of an alleged "pregnancy pact" among them.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said her group opposes the legislation. "Should we be pouring more money into an approach that most schools are teaching, and yet we're seeing the birth rate beginning to go up?" she asked.

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