Kentucky: No More Abstinence Education?

A coalition of six organizations is urging Kentucky to forego $820,000 annually in federal abstinence-only funds, saying the sex education programs are fear-based, promote gender stereotypes, and are ineffective. The groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood of Kentucky, advocate teaching "medically accurate sex education" and contraception.

"One of the biggest problems is that we know teens are having sex, regardless of what message is being presented to them," said Derek Selznick, reproductive-freedom project director for Kentucky's ACLU. "We want teens to make responsible decisions about their sexual lives."

The coalition is still strategizing how to promote its message, Selznick said.

Compared with federal money spent promoting condoms, total abstinence-only spending is relatively small, said Greg Williams, director of Heritage of Kentucky, a non-profit abstinence group. Discussing contraceptives "opens a Pandora's box" with youths and confuses the abstinence message, he said.

Between 2005 and 2006, births to Kentucky teens ages 15-19 rose 6.6 percent, according to CDC.

"It's kind of an urban legend" that Kentucky mandates abstinence-only sex education programs, said Lisa Gross, spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education. The state does not mandate the kind of sex education being taught, nor does it keep track of what local districts require, she said.

But outside groups that could provide comprehensive, medically based sex education to public schools are rarely invited to do so, said Selznick and Shirley Jones, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kentucky. Heritage, meanwhile, offers a multi-day abstinence-only course to 25,000 students in 18-20 school districts, said Williams. In some counties, Title V abstinence funding provides the only sex education available, said Elayne Hollinger, the Lexington County Health Department's abstinence coordinator.

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