SOUTH CAROLINA

Abstinence Education in South Carolina

“Showering together” and “lying in a bed unclothed with the opposite sex” are considered appropriate sexuality education topics according to the de facto authorities for sex education in South Carolina.

These are just two of dozens of examples from curricula approved and promoted by a 1994 partnership between the Centers for Disease Control’s Department of Adolescent Sexual Health (CDC DASH) and Planned Parenthood spin-off SIECUS.

Their cooperative agreement 14 years ago gave SIECUS very broad responsibilities for establishing state standards and training on “comprehensive sexuality.” And, as with so many other social programs, they chose to make South Carolina one of the initial guinea pigs for these standards and training.

Developed to the SIECUS standards, the sex education curricula they brought to South Carolina, Programs that Work, quickly infiltrated our schools and influenced much of the state’s sex education public policy.

But Programs that Work fell blatantly short of Palmetto State law. According to a 2000 SC Attorney General’s ruling, the CDC DASH-approved curricula “violate[d] both the letter and the spirit of the [SC] Comprehensive Health Education Act.” The opinion cited that the curricula:

• Advise instructors to encourage students not to tell their parents what is being discussed in the classroom

• Intrude upon the constitutional right of parents to raise their children

• Deemphasize abstinence, as the surest way to prevent AIDS, as state law mandates

• Read “more like the latest issue of Cosmopolitan or Playboy” than true sex education

• Are deceptive, saying, “Simply putting the word ‘AIDS’ on the cover of a health education text book clearly does not permit educators to place a graphic sex manual or promotional advocacy for condoms inside.”

The Heritage Foundation of Washington, DC affirmed the SC Attorney General’s opinion that these materials promote contraception, not abstinence. That forced the hands of these government-funded groups. Since that time, though, they have attempted to repackage themselves. Under the banner of “Comprehensive Health Education”, they are gaining support of unsuspecting, naïve parents not only in South Carolina but across our nation who believe these curricula are addressing a more global need of “children’s health” not sex education.

It is time to draw the line and say, “Enough is enough.”

One reason South Carolina was chosen as an initial state for the CDC DASH pilot was the overwhelming issue of generational poverty. This trend is statistically co-related with children of never-married families having children of their own. But the SIECUS/CDC DASH programs never addressed the core issue at the heart of general poverty.

In response, a special section of Welfare Reform was created to teach the benefits of abstinence and marriage in an effort to break the generational poverty cycle. This legislation clearly defined what is known as the A-H Congressional Definition of Abstinence Education. These eight standards help define abstinence-outside-of-marriage program requirements and weed out Comprehensive Health Education contraception-promotion programs that falsely claim to be abstinence-based.

To overcome the SIECUS/CDC DASH institutionally-biased environment, long-time SC abstinence-education advocates joined ranks in 1998 to compete as one for scarce federal abstinence education funds. Through Heritage Community Services (Heritage), they submitted a competitive bid to form five regional offices across the state, sharing rather than duplicating common services like bookkeeping, training and evaluation, in order to maximize services in the field.

Since then, Heritage has effectively served and evaluated more than 100,000 students using a number of abstinence-outside-of-marriage federal funding sources. Additional programs have been initiated by former staff members of Heritage, as well, and together they have defeated the skeptics who thought abstinence education would result in skyrocketing teen pregnancy rates. In fact, just the opposite happened.
Since 1998, teen pregnancy rates have dropped by an astounding 35%. And a peer-reviewed article published by the Office of Population Affairs and the Administration for Children and Families reinforces this. The article states that a year after the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education program, students who participated initiated sex at a rate half that of similar non-program students.

Yet, despite this dramatic trend reversal, many in the media and sexuality education community are still under the misinformed influence of the SIECUS/CDC DASH message. We are consistently being bombarded by groups like Tell Them! (www.tellthemsc.org), an anti-abstinence spin-off of the national “No More Money for Abstinence Education,” which continues to push the misinformation agenda, distorting the truth about abstinence education.

However, support for true abstinence education (A-H standards) is strong in South Carolina. In 2007, Palmetto Family Council released a public opinion survey, What Parents Want. This study of 500 registered voters (margin of +- 4.4%) conducted by the University of SC's Institute for Public Service and Policy research found that 80% of respondents said abstinence should be emphasized as the first and best option for youth and that 63% believe abstinence should occupy the majority of sex education time. This support for abstinence is increasing in South Carolina where more than 1100 people have joined the South Carolina Healthy Family Formation Coalition. Many of these members represent entire organizations, and this state-wide coalition is growing daily.

It is time we become one voice of truth in this fight to protect and defend our children. We can no longer stand idly by while the banner of “Comprehensive Health Education” continues to allow groups to seep immoral and dangerous messages of sexuality to our young people. We must unite as Parents for Truth – and make abstinence-outside-of-marriage the standard again. Join us in this fight.

South Carolina Sexuality Education Law and Policy

According to the SC Attorney General’s Office, “By the way of historical overview, it is important to emphasize that reports concerning the Comprehensive Health Education Bill as it headed toward passage in 1988 stressed the intent of the legislation. While we cannot rely upon the statements of legislators, or others, such statements are never-the-less instructive. For example, one news report noted that the ‘bill also insists that abstinence be taught as the primary method of combating sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy.’ The State, February 4, 1988, p.1C. (Emphasis added). A proponent of the legislation, former Senator Heyward McDonald, then a member of the State Board of Education, stated that the legislation would ‘stress that sex before marriage is irresponsible and just plain wrong and would provide students guidance on how to say no.’ ”

Schools in South Carolina are required to teach sexuality education as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) education. State law specifies that:

According to the law:

The law explains that “contraceptive information must be given in the context of future family planning,” which has been interpreted to mean that any information about contraception must be in the context of use during marriage. The law states that abstinence-until-marriage must be stressed; pregnancy prevention can be covered and must be taught in gender-divided classes; and adoption can be discussed, but abortion cannot. Finally it explains:

The state does not require or suggest a specific curriculum. However, each local school board must “appoint a thirteen member local advisory committee consisting of two parents, three clergy, two health professionals, two teachers, two students, one being the president of the student body of a high school, and two other persons not employed by the local school district.” Parents must be informed in advance of any sexuality specific instruction and are allowed to remove their children from any part of the health education classes. This is referred to as an “opt-out” policy.

See South Carolina Comprehensive Health Education Act Code 59-32-30.

Parents for Truth Member Organizations in South Carolina

Dick Pruet, President/COO
2810 Ashley Phosphate B7
N. Charleston, SC 29418
www.heritageservices.org

Carole Walters
106 Deer Wood
Easley, SC 29642

Other Organizations Providing Abstinence Education in South Carolina

Heritage of Charleston
Jerry Raymond, Regional Director
2810 Ashley Phosphate B5
N. Charleston, SC 29418

Heritage of Florence
Shawnda McNeil, Regional Director
1216 Broughton Blvd.
Florence, SC 20501

Heritage of Aiken
Shelia Whittington, Regional Director
5220 Woodside Executive Court
Aiken, SC 29803

Heritage of Walterboro
Robin Crosby, Regional Director
103 Heirs Street
Walterboro, SC 29488

Heritage of Greenville
Julie Hershey, Regional Director
100 Collins Drive
Greer, SC 29651

Carolina Pregnancy Center & SC Association of Pregnancy Care Centers

Alexia Newman, Executive Director
PO Box 5364
Spartanburg, SC 29304

Palmetto Pregnancy Care
Trudy Laub, Executive Director
828 Lucas Street
Rock Hill, SC 29730

Augusta CPC
Susan Swanson, Executive Director
PO Box 1775
Augusta, SC 30903

Palmetto Family Council
Oran Smith, PhD, Executive Director      
PO Box 11953
Columbia, SC  29211-1953