The Secular Coalition for America supports the Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act, which would limit federal funding to medically accurate sexuality education programs. We oppose abstinence-only curricula, which have been proven ineffective, inaccurate and, often, theologically based.
In this topic:- Summary
- Position Statement
Sexuality education
Medical science, not religious ideology, should direct sex education policy.
When provided, sex education programs must be crafted on sound science based on age appropriate instruction to protect the health and safety of our youth. However, our current policy is based on promoting and endorsing one particular religious perspective.
Comprehensive sexuality education, endorsed by health and education professionals, that both encourages teens to abstain from sex and teaches them about contraceptives and barrier methods reduces the disease rate as well as unintended pregnancies among teens.
Abstinence-only programs are ineffective and provide false and misleading information.
In addition to being ineffective, government-funded abstinence-only education curricula do more than simply leave out information on safe sex. Many of these programs contain false and misleading "medical" statements and teach religious propaganda and theologically driven gender stereotypes to our children.
Urge your elected officials to stop funding flawed abstinence-only programs.
The Secular Coalition for America calls for the passage of the Prevention First Act (S.21 and H.R.819), which requires that federal funding be limited to fact-based sexuality education. For more information go to http://thomas.loc.gov/.
In-depth assessment of your state's sexuality education funding, including contact information for funded organizations, can be found at http://www.siecus.org/policy/states/.
