Why students need to hear this message

Oct 23, 2014 | 1 comment

There are some who are protesting the “controversial” guest speaker set to speak to Warwick High School students at an assembly next month.  Here are our insights on what is happening.

The invited speaker is Pam Stenzel. Her “controversial” message? Abstinence until marriage.

That’s right, abstinence. She believes that (in her words) “young people are fully capable of making good healthy decisions” to abstain and warns students that “sex has a price tag” i.e. sex has consequences. I think you’ll agree that’s a good message for teenagers, one that many parents support, and a message that’s sorely lacking in society, especially in public schools!

What the protesters of Pam Stenzel’s appearance are calling for is “comprehensive sex education,” which sounds reasonable until you find out what it that truly means.

Several years ago, the Pennsylvania House Education Committee heard expert testimony on a bill – authored by Planned Parenthood – that would have mandated explicit sex education for all 500 school districts in the Commonwealth, starting in middle school.  (It’s the kind many of the Warwick protesters support, to the exclusion of the abstinence message.)

Pennsylvania Family Institute weighed in: Our Chief Counsel Randy Wenger testified against the legislation on behalf of concerned citizens like you.  Here’s some of what we presented in testimony:

In a study of the most popular “comprehensive” sex education programs, eight of the nine programs included sexually explicit material considered objectionable by a majority of parents polled. These programs actually encourage risky sexual behaviors. One leading program prompts teachers to: “State that there are other ways to be close to a person without having sexual intercourse. Ask youth to brainstorm ways to be close. The list may include body massage, bathing together,…sensuous feeding, fantasizing, watching erotic movies, reading erotic books and magazines.”

Click here for Randy Wenger’s full testimony on Sex Education.

A majority of the legislators present were appropriately appalled at what they heard.  They voted down the Planned Parenthood-authored bill, and families across the Commonwealth were saved from this destructive mandate.  We are constantly vigilant on your behalf to oppose such legislation.

What many parents prefer, in stark contrast, is authentic abstinence programs that help students understand that no birth control in the world can protect them from the emotional and physical consequences of early sexual activity.  

This is the type of message that guest speaker Pam Stenzel was invited to present at Warwick High School — a message that she has delivered to young people internationally.

We thought you ought to know.

* If you want to read more about what’s behind the push for sex education, click here for our testimony against a Planned Parenthood mandate in schools, or here for a Heritage Foundation study of abstinence vs. contraceptive programs.

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