June 29, 2001
Surgeon General Calls for Sex Education
Beyond Abstinence Courses
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON,
June 28 In what he described as a bid to give scientific
grounding to
the volatile debate over sex education, the surgeon general of
the United
States urged communities today to provide young people with
thorough and
medically accurate sex education as a way to reduce the number
of unwanted
pregnancies, rapes and sexually transmitted diseases.
The long-awaited report
from the surgeon general, Dr. David Satcher, said
there was
insufficient research to back claims that courses teaching
abstinence until
marriage had any success in delaying sexual activity among
unmarried
teenagers. Such programs, which account for the single largest
federal effort in sex education, teach that the only reliable way to avoid
pregnancy and disease is to remain chaste until marriage.
With financing
for the abstinence- until-marriage programs up for
reauthorization later
this year, Dr. Satcher's report drew swift criticism
from
conservatives.
While praising the value of teaching abstinence, Dr. Satcher
said youngsters
also needed instruction in human sexuality. His report found
no scientific
support for fears that talking about sex in the classroom led
teenagers to
have sex at an earlier age. But several studies showed that
when students who
had taken sex education did become sexually active, they
were more likely to
use protection, his report said.
Dr. Satcher called on individuals and communities to respect diversity in
sexual orientation, saying there was little evidence that sexual
orientation,
once discovered in adolescence, could be altered. But he said
there was proof
that physical abuse, insults or isolation of young people
who are gay can
undermine their mental health, sometimes resulting in
depression or suicide.
Dr. Satcher defined abstinence as celibacy outside of
a "mutually monogamous
relationship," not necessarily marriage, and said,
"Every child needs to have
equity of opportunity for sex education . That's
the point we are trying to
make."
Originally scheduled to be released in
the fall, the report, "The Call to
Action to Promote Sexual Health and
Responsible Sexual Behavior," took nearly
two years to prepare. The delay
fueled doubts among scientists and health
professionals that it would ever
come out and that it would venture a bold
stance in tackling what Dr.
Satcher today acknowledged was "the most
controversial and sensitive" issue
he has faced as surgeon general.
While acting independently, the surgeon
general works out of the Department
of Health and Human Services. Dr.
Satcher, who was appointed by President
Bill Clinton, has released other
reports in conjunction with President Bush's
secretary of health and human
services, Tommy G. Thompson, but he issued
today's report by
himself.
While Mr. Thompson saw the report before it was issued, he made no
changes to
it. "It's a completely independent work," said Anthony Jewell, a
spokesman
for Mr. Thompson.
The White House appeared to be distancing
itself from the work, although not
attacking it. Ari Fleischer, the White
House spokesman, noted that the report
was commissioned under Mr. Clinton
and said that Mr. Bush's "overall approach
on these matters focuses on
abstinence, abstinence education."
In his report, Dr. Satcher defined sexual
health broadly, saying it was not
confined to an individual's reproductive
years or to having sex, per se. "It
includes the ability to understand and
weigh the risks, responsibilities,
outcomes and impacts of sexual actions
and to practice abstinence when
appropriate," he wrote. "It includes freedom
from sexual abuse and
discrimination and the ability of individuals to
integrate their sexuality
into their lives, derive pleasure from it, and to
reproduce if they so
choose."
The report, based on a review of hundreds
of scientific studies and journal
articles, estimated that 45 million
people, or one in six Americans, are
infected with genital herpes, with a
million new cases each year. It said
that 22 percent of all women had been
raped, and that 104,000 children were
sexually abused each year.
While
Dr. Satcher said he set out only to establish common ground for
discussion
in the highly polarized issue of sex education, his report
appeared to
please scientists and health professionals with his call for
frank
discussion about sexuality.
Dr. Bruce Bagley, chairman of the board of the
American Academy of Family
Physicians, which represents 91,000 family
physicians, praised Dr. Satcher's
message. "Our ability to change society
one person at a time is very
limited," Dr. Bagley said. "The only way we're
going to change approaches to
sexual behavior and sexual activity is through
school. In school, not only at
the doctor's office."
Advocates of
abstinence programs were outraged. Peter Brandt, director of
issue response
at Focus on the Family, a church-based conservative group,
called the report
"ideology disguised as science from the beginning to the
end."
Mr. Brandt
disputed the surgeon general's statement that sexual orientation
could not
be altered through force of will, and said the report "calls
severely into
question the surgeon general's ability to remain the chief
medical officer
of the United States." Dr. Satcher's term ends in February
2002.
But
rather than appealing to either camp, Dr. Satcher's call could as easily
have come from American parents. Several recent opinion polls show the vast
majority of parents want schools to urge teenagers to remain virgins, but
also to teach them how to protect themselves if they become sexually
active.
Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit
research
group that has done surveys on sex education, said, "There is
nothing in that
report that isn't endorsed wholeheartedly in every survey
we've done of
parents."
="
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Sex-Ed Report Languishes</A> (April 21, 2001)
<A HREF="
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2000)