Poor sexual health outcomes in Mississippi are the result of a state that continues to invest scarce funds in failed abstinence-only programs, leaving young people without the information and services they need to protect themselves.

This week, Planned Parenthood in Mississippi

and the Sexuality Information and Education

Council of the United States (SIECUS) released a report on the saturation

of taxpayer-funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs throughout the state

of Mississippi and the status of sex education,

or lack thereof, provided in Mississippi

public schools. The report, titled Sex

Education in Mississippi: Why ‘Just Wait’ Just Doesn’t Work, details

the poor sexual health outcomes among adolescents in Mississippi, the state’s

heavy investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, and the lack of

sex education required in public schools.

Key

indicators for health among Mississippi’s

adolescents present a bleak picture. Mississippi has the

highest teen birth rate in the country. Young

people in the state also rank above the national average for rates of risky

sexual activity, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),

including HIV. The state’s poor sexual health outcomes make it clear that young

people lack access to the adequate sexual and reproductive health information

and care they need to protect themselves and make safe and healthy decisions.

The

report also makes clear that the federal government’s heavy investment in

abstinence-only-until-marriage funding over the past few decades has

promulgated a myriad of state

policies, state agencies, and community-based organizations focused on

promoting an abstinence-only-until-marriage ideology throughout the state. The trickle-down effect of the funding for

abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and the industry it created has

impacted states throughout the nation, with a disparate impact on Southern

states, and this could not be truer in Mississippi.

Though

a shift away from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is taking place at

the national level spurred by overwhelming

evidence proving these programs to be ineffective, they continue to prosper

in Mississippi.

Federal funding for such programs may

have just started

to dry up in favor of more comprehensive approaches to sex education that

include information about abstinence and contraception, among other topics;

however, Mississippi continues to see a steady stream of

abstinence-only-until-marriage programming and it will take time and vigilance

before a shift away from the abstinence-only approach is seen in the state.

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Planned

Parenthood in Mississippi and SIECUS partnered together to take a closer look

at the information students are receiving in public schools and the messages

delivered by school-based and community-based abstinence-only-until-marriage

programs reaching youth across the state of Mississippi. We found that

Mississippi school districts and the Mississippi Department of Human Services

abdicate their responsibility to provide medically accurate information to

students and instead rely on failed

abstinence-only-until-marriage programming. It is clear from the evidence

detailed in the report that a fundamental change is needed in how Mississippi educates its

young people and prepares them to be sexually healthy adults.

The

majority of sex education programs in Mississippi,

whether provided by schools, state agencies, community organizations, or

churches, take an abstinence-only-until-marriage approach, and messages

promoting abstinence-until-marriage are pervasive in the state-appearing on

billboards, print media, in radio and television ads as well as in formal

programs. Young people in Mississippi are

practically bombarded with messages about staying abstinent until

marriage. In addition, many of these

programs, media campaigns, and activities are supported by federal funds.

In

Fiscal Year 2008 alone, Mississippi

received $5,742,594 in federal funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage

programs, which was the eighth

largest funding amount awarded to any state. By far, the largest recipient of

abstinence-only-until-marriage funding in the state is the Mississippi

Department of Human Services (MDHS) which received a total of $1,428,753 for

Fiscal Year 2008. With its federal

funding, MDHS operates the "Just Wait" Abstinence Program which includes a

statewide media campaign, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, conferences,

an annual rally, and school presentations that reach youth throughout the state

of Mississippi.

Mississippi schools do not fare

much better in providing accurate sex education to students. State law does not

require schools to teach sexuality education or provide instruction in HIV,

STD, or pregnancy prevention; however, if schools choose to teach any of these

topics, state law requires that they stress abstinence-only-until-marriage. Furthermore, many schools have ceded sex

education to outside groups that are allowed to conduct classes and other

activities in the schools with little-to-no oversight. Students are therefore at risk of receiving

inaccurate and ideologically biased instruction. The lack of any statutory requirement to

provide evidence-based, medically accurate sexuality education, and the

reliance on outside groups providing abstinence-only-until-marriage instruction

in the schools, has resulted in a myriad of different, but equally ineffective,

programs which leave young people at risk.

In

Mississippi’s

classrooms, the impact is real. The information and programs delivered to

students use fear and shame tactics to

promote abstinence until marriage, reinforce antiquated gender stereotypes that

impose a double standard on young women, provide outright, inaccurate

information, and use outdated materials-some which are 20 years old. For

example, the Leland

School District

distributes a pamphlet to students, entitled "The Truth About…Sex &

Love." It states, among other things, that

sex outside of marriage "is playing Russian Roulette with your emotions,

self-respect, health, and your [sic] future."

In

another example, some information provided to students is wholly outdated.

Information on AIDS included in the 1994 edition of, Fearon’s Health (2nd ed.),

a textbook used in Forest Municipal school district, gives students a history

lesson on the epidemic rather than providing any current information. Its most recent statistics for AIDS are from

1991, including statistics indicating a mortality rate from 1981-1991 of 64

percent. By contrast, the estimated AIDS mortality rate in 2006 was 38 percent.

To

mention just one other egregious example, of which there are many, the "Not

Now" abstinence-only-until-marriage program, delivered to students in four

Mississippi Delta counties, has students participate in a mock wedding

ceremony. As part of the ceremony, the

bride presents the groom with a dirty sneaker as a wedding present. The dirty sneaker signifies "a lifestyle of

impurity" and relays the message that no sock (representing a condom) could

ever fully protect the foot from dirt and diseases. The groom, on the other hand, gives the bride

a clean sneaker representing his "purity up until marriage." At the end of the wedding activity, the

students "pledged to remain pure" and bring clean tennis shoes to marriage. While

this is awful messaging in and of itself, research also shows that 88 percent

of students who pledge to remain abstinent until marriage fail to keep this

pledge and have the same STD rates as those who didn’t take a pledge. They are

also less likely to use contraception when they do become sexually active.

What

is made clear by this report is that Mississippi is failing to provide young

people with the information they need to make healthy decisions and avoid

unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Most disturbingly, the Department of Human

Services, which is seen as a trusted state agency, plays a large role in

disseminating this ineffective programming to young people instead of equipping

them with public health information that is medically accurate and based in

science.

Every

major medical and public health organization in this country and around the

globe agrees that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are not best for

young people and believe in the importance of providing comprehensive sexuality

education. It is time for Mississippi to follow

the route that we know works in meeting the health needs of our young people:

end abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the state and implement

comprehensive sexuality education. Public policy in the Mississippi must be made to follow the

evidence and commit to a bold new plan to implement comprehensive sex

education. The taxpayers and young

people of Mississippi deserve nothing less.