The Abstinence Clearinghouse Blog

Robert Rector Tells It Like It Is!

The following are excerpts from an article published by CNSNews.com.  Click here to read the full article.  Mr. Rector’s messaging is strong and accurate.  We encouarge affiliates to quote him as you continue to raise awareness and support in your community for your programs.

Robert Rector, a senior analyst at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, said the president’s move came at the request of abortion-rights groups, including Planned Parenthood.
 
“Planned Parenthood and its ideological allies have opposed abstinence-only sex education from the very first day that the federal abstinence programs were created – not because of issues of effectiveness, but because they are ideologically opposed to teaching abstinence,” Rector told CNSNews.com.

“They have promoted alternatively, material that promotes and encourages sexual promiscuity but that encourage the use of condoms along with promiscuity,” Rector said.
 
Rector, who has published research examining abstinence education programs, defended their effectiveness.
 
“The federal abstinence programs are effective in reducing sexual activity, and they are, in fact, one of the few last remaining voices in our society that gives young people a message of self-restraint, rather than a message of sexual indulgence,” Rector said.
 
“They teach kids that casual sexual activity is harmful, for a variety of reasons, and they teach kids that sex is a lot more than physical passion,” he added. “It’s a very helpful, supportive message that’s supported by virtually every parent, and is now being torpedoed by a very small set of left-wing groups promoting the doctrines of Dr. Alfred Kinsey.”

Rector, meanwhile, said “abstinence-plus” – or comprehensive sex ed curricula – are really .
 
“Nowhere in any of those curricula, do they ever suggest that young people should wait until they are older, or, for example, postpone sexual activity until after they get out of high school,” Rector told CNSNews.com. “‘Have a hot time on Friday night, but wear a condom’ is the message in those programs and it is the message that Planned Parenthood wants offered.”
 
Rector cited a passage from one popular comprehensive sex-ed curriculum — “Be Proud! Be Responsible!”– that has HHS approval:
 
“Invite students to brainstorm on ways to increase the spontaneity and likelihood that they will use condoms. Examples: Store condoms under your mattress. Eroticize condom use with a partner. Use condoms as a method of foreplay. Think of a sexual fantasy using condoms. Act sexy and sensual when putting your condom on. Hide them on your body and ask you partner your body to find it. Wrap them as a present to give to your partner before a romantic dinner. Tease each other manually while putting the condom on.”
 
He added: “This is what is to be taught to children in middle school under the Obama model. Did that sound like it was stressing abstinence to you? Of course not. They only mention it in a marginal, derisive way.”
 
Rector said the message, which is “supported by practically no parents,” is now “the excusive message promoted by the federal government.”