Abstinence Proponent: Planned Parenthood Speaker Got Teen Pregnancy Facts Wrong
by Mary Rettig
August 9, 2005
(AgapePress) - Abstinence Clearinghouse president Leslee Unruh says the grandson of Planned Parenthood Federation of America founder Margaret Sanger was giving out some questionable statistics last week when he told a Denver, Colorado, group that Planned Parenthood needs a new strategy for addressing teen pregnancy. At a luncheon in Denver benefiting Teens for Tomorrow, International Planned Parenthood Council Chair Alexander Sanger claimed the problem of pregnancy among adolescents is getting worse. The speaker cited statistics, saying 80 percent of teenagers are sexually active, 10 percent get pregnant, and five percent give birth.
According to a Denver Post article, Sanger told the luncheon crowd that the arguments Planned Parenthood has been using to combat teen pregnancy have not been working. Instead, he said the organization needs to focus on the "planned" part of its name and must "reframe the issues of reproductive freedom and the steps that need to be taken to make sure that every child is born to parents who want and are ready for a child."
However, Leslee Unruh claims Sanger needs to get his facts straight. She insists that the National Centers for Disease Control, the federal Department of Health, and the National Institutes of Health will all confirm what Abstinence Clearinghouse's statistics show -- that "there are less kids having sex than those that are." She contends it is condom education that has not been working, while the abstinence message is actually doing what latex cannot.
If Alexander Sanger would look at the facts, Unruh says, he would see that teen pregnancy is in fact declining. And the reason, she asserts, is not because of increased condom use, as Planned Parenthood might suggest, but because of increased teen abstinence.
"We know that people are concerned about this message, and not just in the United States but worldwide," the Abstinence Clearinghouse spokeswoman says. "The U.S. has serious problem going on with the rise in sexually transmitted disease," she points out, and she contends that, to a large degree, "we can put the fault on no less than Margaret Sanger."
Planned Parenthood's program has been criticized by abstinence education advocates for its obstinate pushing of the "safe-sex through condoms" fallacy. But Abstinence Clearinghouse notes that the latest study on contraception education published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases shows that despite claims of success, condom promotion programs fail to protect the health of individuals.
Meanwhile, Unruh points out, that teen pregnancy rates have actually "been going down and down because of the abstinence-until-marriage program." And at the same time, she adds, even many of those teens who have been sexually active are making the choice to stop having sex after getting involved in some of the programs for at-risk teens that emphasize abstinence and character education.
Unruh believes the abstinence message is not only needed but that it is gaining acceptance in the international community as well as in America. She note that the Ninth International Abstinence Leadership Conference, which took place this past weekend, saw a huge positive response with individuals from more than 100 countries participating.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
