Encouraging sexual abstinence among teenagers is receiving a boost in the United States from a national campaign, called Parents For Truth, aimed at enlisting the support of one million parents. The National Abstinence Education Association sent emails last week to about 30,000 supporters, practitioners and parents and planned to email 100,000 this week as part of the first phase of the campaign. A registration fee of $30 per participant will provide funds to back lobbying efforts by parents to get schools to adopt sex education programmes focusing on abstinence and work to elect officials who support this approach.

“There are powerful special interest groups who can far outspend what parents can in terms of promoting their agenda,” said NAEA executive director Valerie Huber. “But we recognise that parents more than make up for that by their determination and motivation to protect their own children.”

The campaign comes as Congress is debating whether to authorise about $190 million in federal funding for abstinence education programmes, which have been under attack by advocates of so-called comprehensive sex education. The Parents For Truth website has a very effective video conveying the message that comprehensive sex ed typically puts its emphasis on safer sex practices and teaches kids how to have sex rather than how to avoid it. The website also offers advice to parents about sex education. ~ Washington Post, June 1