First of all, I hope that any of you reading this who can make sure that Mr. Zimmerman will get it will send it to him.  I welcome the opportunity to have an open, objective discussion aired on the negative outcomes of contraceptive education and the positive outcomes of Abstinence and Healthy Relationship education (AE)!

I’m simply going to give you the info and statements as they exist and were stated in the final airing and contrast them with the facts as they were actually stated and from objective sources and, in so doing, reveal the blatant lies and contextual deceptions that were presented.

One of the first comments that was made was that Heritage of KY program ‘compares unmarried sex to violence and drug use” and then continues with the statement that our program since 2002 continues to be very successful, as though we desire for people to make the connection of unmarried sex with violence and drug use and that all three are criminal in nature!  This was a much skewed statement and not what our program does. 

We talk to youth about the joys and benefits of sex within the boundaries of marriage as found in numerous reports and much objective research from the social sciences.  We also discuss the dangers of sex outside of marriage that truly exist in research and in real life so our youth can be prepared to make the best decisions for their life.  This is done in connection with warning them about other risky behaviors such as drug and alcohol use and their outcomes as well as those behaviors that can lead to violence.  We want them to have the best information that can keep them safe – 100% safe – and ultimately empower them and let them know that the final decision is theirs and that it can be a good and healthy one! 

To be objective on my part, the next statement properly claimed that our success is helping a new generation to respect themselves and others and that sexual intimacy should wait and then quotes me as saying that our program is “abstinence until marriage.”  This was all done in context and presented accordingly.  However, with one exception - sort of, this is pretty much where the objectivity and truth ends!

His next statement, returning to bias, began with questioning whether students were actually getting the message and he “supported” his claim by stating that ‘studies show that underage sex is not going away fast enough” (from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that shows that KY youth are above the national average in teen birth rate) and that “almost half of KY teens have had sex regardless of abstinence-only education.”  While I totally agree with his data and the studies, the fact that he attributed it to abstinence-only education was very misleading as would have been made very clear if he had continued with positive trends and data that objectively show that all these trends he alluded to have been moving downward since the onset of abstinence education and that had never happened when contraceptive sex education (CSE) ‘ruled the day.’ 

Although the numbers are still way too high and very troubling, as a matter of fact (researched fact), the teen sexual activity rate in KY was nearly 60% a few years ago (53% just 3 years ago) having dropped to the aired comment of ‘almost half’ which is a great improvement, again, that never happened under the ‘exclusive care’ of CSE. CSE results showed a steady increase of sexual activity among teens to the aforementioned highest rate in history.  On the national level, the rate of teen sexual activity had risen to a high of 55% in 1997 (the first year that Ab Ed began receiving federal funding) dropping over the last 10 years of federally funded Ab Ed programming to nearly 46%, a huge cultural shift that never happened under CSE. In fact, this rate always rose under their programs!!  Therein lays the problem in Mr. Zimmerman’s follow up quote from Ms. Betsy Neal, a proponent of CSE, that leads the listener to believe that CSE programs are the ones making a positive difference even though the statistics show that they never did and the opposite is actually true!

The next couple of comments use quotes from Ms. Neal and misrepresentation about our program to make it appear that CSE programs give “all the information” and AE programs leave some out and that is why the problems stated above exist.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As a matter of fact, when CSE programs claim that they are “safe” or “safer” they are lying, period!  Safe as defined in the dictionary means ‘free from danger, harm or risk.’  The only way to be safe from the consequences of risky sexual activity outside of marriage is by remaining abstinent.  Every other “method” carries with it danger, risk and potential harm – i.e., not safe as CSE proponents wrongly claim especially when you’re teaching young developing adolescent minds who receive the word “safe” at face value – what a dangerous and damaging approach!  In this mix of statements, Mr. Zimmerman, again falsely claims that Heritage of Kentucky only teaches about contraception from a failure standpoint.  Our program teaches the medically accurate success and failure rates of contraception and condoms, giving youth all the info that allow them to make the decision to be safe or at least fully understand the risks in making their decisions (unlike CSE programs).

Perhaps the most blatant bias came in the last two points. The first being that Mr. Zimmerman allows Ms. Neal to state that she believes that Heritage isn’t being honest when we teach that having unmarried sex leads to suicide.  To be fair and honest (once again you can check the video out for yourself), I was given the question and the chance to clearly state that Heritage doesn’t teach this but only that research shows that suicidal thoughts and depression are more likely (30% more likely, Columbia Univ. study, 2002) and that we want youth to know all the potential outcomes (again, we’re the ones that give them all the info, unlike CSE programs).  By the way this study was very well done and factored in those youth who used condoms and those who didn’t and it came out statistically the same for both.  This is huge and youth need to be aware of what they’re getting into – all the info!  AE programs give all the info!

Zimmerman used a quote from the Executive Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, a CSE proponent and advocate, in a study commissioned by them stating, “Youth enrolled in Abstinence only programs were no more likely than those not in programs to delay sexual initiation.”  He then claimed that this study was on the Heritage program and could be found on a link on our website.  Not only is the quote inaccurate but it also does not appear on any of the links on the Heritage of Kentucky or Heritage Community Services websites nor has it ever.

The statement has been made many times in flawed studies and skewed, biased results that come from these studies. Here is the actual statement from the 2007 study that he used the above quote to describe – you decide if it was a lie or not – “However, the study did use statistical procedures to try to adjust for the large baseline differences between the intervention and comparison schools, and the resulting analyses suggest that the program did delay the initiation of sex.” This statement was made by a long time abstinence critic, Doug Kirby, PhD, who also contributed greatly to the study as well as stands to make financial gains from the CSE programs the study.  Talk about integrity and objectivity!  In other studies that are much more objective and the results of AE program students vs. non-program students and/or CSE program students there is a significant delay in sexual initiation averaging about 18 months.   

In closing, if you really are looking for ‘all the info’ and programs that have been proven to work, remember this – AE programs, while Mr. Zimmerman questioned the millions of dollars going to schools for such programs, have been responsible for nearly all the positive improvement and outcomes that never occurred under the CSE monopoly up until 1997.  And, by the way, this has been done while CSE programs continue to receive federal dollars for their message at a rate of $12 for every $1 spent on AE programs.  Based on the results why didn’t Mr. Zimmerman question the billions of dollars that have gone and continue to go to failed CSE programs?

Isn’t it amazing that the question asked was whether the dollars spent on AE programs, which are clearly working in reducing many of the negative outcomes regarding sexual activity outside of marriage, when the CSE programs receive 12 times that funding and have never worked.  Just imagine what could happen if good AE programs got that ratio of funding and left the ill-advised CSE programs that have never brought about positive change with the short end of the stick.  We would really see some positive changes and lives.

Please contact me at gwilliams@heritageofky.org and join us as we continue to give our youth this great and effective message in the face of those programs which receive so much more and continue to fail!