Abstinence only

We have a chance to stop state funding for the ineffective and misleading, so-called "abstinence only" curricula in community teen pregnancy prevention programs. Please email the N.C. Commission on Public Health today in support of comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality and health education.

Back in October, I wrote a post about the unintended impact of Robin Hayes' abstinence only agenda on teen pregnancy in North Carolina.

There are plenty of reasons to consider Robin Hayes a disgusting and vile creature, but one reason very close to my heart has been largely unaddressed. Robin Hayes is personally responsible for thousands of teen pregnancies in North Carolina every year. Here's the story.

In the dark of night when the legislature was in session back in 1995, then Representative Robin Hayes introduced a bill requiring that public schools in North Carolina teach an abstinence-only sex education curriculum. Despite heated and stunningly uninformed debate, the House and the Senate passed the bill. Since the 1996-97 academic year, over 100 out of the 117 school systems in North Carolina have taught abstinence-only until marriage in their healthy living/sex education courses.