Illinois Lawmakers Urge Review of State's Pro-Condom Pregnancy Prevention Classes
by Mary Rettig
April 17, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An Illinois congressman says the Government Accounting Office (GAO) needs to evaluate the appropriateness of some pregnancy prevention classes being offered to young people. Representative Don Manzullo, along with 20 other members of Congress, sent a letter to the GAO about some of these taxpayer-funded pregnancy prevention classes. He says he did this because taxpayers have a right to know about the obscenities that are being taught to their children.
The letter says the programs bill themselves as "abstinence plus" while less than five percent of them have any mention of abstinence at all. Also, Manzullo notes, some of the programs are provided to children as young as nine years of age and have some very disturbing assignments, such as taking kids on a field trip to a store to find condoms.
In another typical exercise for such classes, teams are assigned "to create a list of ways to be close to a person by watching erotic movies, reading erotic books and magazines, among other things that I don't want to mention," the Illinois lawmaker notes. "But that just gives you a flavor of what's in some of these courses."
Furthermore, Manzullo points out, many of these programs also give inaccurate information and encourage kids to be secretive. And these classes target what he feels is a wide and alarming range of students.
"One is called 'Becoming a Responsible Teen' -- that's aimed at ages 14 to 18," the Illinois congressman says. "Another is called 'Be Proud, Be Responsible'; that's for adolescents. Another one is called 'Focus on Kids' -- that's probably the most aggravating -- it's for ages 9 to 15.'"
Two other courses, "Reducing the Risk" and one titled "Get Real About AIDS," are designed for high school students, Manzullo adds, while another program called "Teen Talk" targets youth from ages 13 to 19. In these classes, he says, students are often instructed to play condom "games" and to have brainstorming sessions to come up with "fun" ways to increase condom use.
Illinois taxpayers need to know about the type of obscene things their children are being taught under the guise of pregnancy prevention, the state representative contends. Manzullo says the GAO has yet to respond to the concerned legislators' letter.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
