op-ed
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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November 26, 2004

The Bush Administration has a funny way of justifying abstinence-only sex education. Who needs science? Despite the fact that nearly 100% of sexually mature humans will have sex, telling them not to changes all that. Just ask Wade Horn whose "biology" kept him a virgin until he was married.

"We don't need a study, if I remember my biology correctly, to show us that those people who are sexually abstinent have a zero chance of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease," said Wade Horn, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services in charge of federal abstinence funding.

Those who say schools also should be teaching youths how to use contraceptives say Horn's argument ignores reality. Surveys indicate that roughly 50 percent of teens say they have sex before they leave high school. While the nation's teenage pregnancy rate is declining, young people 15 to 24 account for about half the new cases of sexually transmitted diseases in the United States each year.
[Bush Seeks Funds for Abstinence Education - AP -11-26-04]

To get a sense of where the White House is going on this issue, check out the White House press briefing from 11-17-04. Bush's nomination of Margaret Spellings for Secretary of Education puts an abstinence-only advocate in position to strip sex education down to simply telling kids not to have sex.