Here’s something you don’t see every day: a Washington lobbying group is so gung-ho for Massachusetts to accept federal money that it’s launching a $75,000 media campaign to pressure Gov. Deval Patrick to take it.
Why such interest in fattening up Massachusetts’ coffers? Because of the ideological underpinnings behind the bucks. On the table is a $700,000 grant to fund “abstinence-only” sex ed for school kids—something Patrick has rejected in the past.
Perhaps Patrick has been persuaded by the range of experts, including the World Health Organization and former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, who have raised serious questions about how effective abstinence-only programs are at reducing rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Maybe he’s listened to criticisms that the programs fail to include adequate information about condoms and other forms of birth control and to overstate their failure rates. Or maybe he just understands that telling teens to wait until they’re married to have sex is about as effective as telling a three-year-old to leave that cookie on his plate until dessert.
Massachusetts is one of 10 states targeted by the lobbying group, called the National Abstinence Education Association, for refusing the federal money. States have until the end of the month to apply for the grants. Until then, prepare yourself for ads like the one headlined “Deval Patrick Doesn’t Want 11-Year-Olds Taught to Say ‘No’ to Sex.”
