Preaching Chastity In the Classroom

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It's assembly time at La Vega High School in McLennan County, Texas, and a roomful of juniors and seniors is talking about the facts of life. "From this day forward, what's going to be too far for you?" asks traveling lecturer Eric Tooley, as he distributes a work sheet on "physical affection" that begins with talking and holding hands and progresses right through to sexual intercourse. "Circle the things you're not going to do until marriage." As the students finish up their assignment, Tooley makes clear his own preference: "Virginity is a gift you get to give away only once in your life, and I hope you save it for marriage."

After years of high teen-pregnancy rates in McLennan County, a publicly funded group has mounted a controversial community-wide crackdown on teen sex known as "abstinence-only education." Its proponents argue that giving kids an unambiguous abstinence message--rather than telling them to wait but distributing condoms for when they don't--will curb teen pregnancies, decrease the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and make for "sexually healthier" adults. And they warn against a strain of human papilloma virus that is linked to cervical cancer--and is not prevented by condoms. Opponents of abstinence-only education, however, call it "erotophobic" and fear it could prevent kids from learning what they need to know about sex.

The debate is set to become more prominent--and heated--over the next few months. G.O.P. presidential front runner George W. Bush is taking the abstinence issue to the campaign trail. As Governor, he has poured $6 million into abstinence programs. And he has pledged that if elected President, he would allocate some $135 million, or the amount the government now spends on contraception programs, to "elevate abstinence education from an afterthought to an urgent priority." Accordingly, McLennan County is being watched as a bellwether.

Enthusiasm for the just-say-no approach began with little-noticed G.O.P. welfare-reform legislation, setting aside $50 million over five years for states that exhort kids to save sex until marriage. Since the measure took effect two years ago, some 700 schools and community groups in 48 states have snapped up the funds, according to a study by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). Five states have gone a step further, mandating that abstinence-only programs be taught in all their schools. The programs vary widely, but the federal funds require that children be taught the "harmful psychological and physical effects" of premarital sex. Contraceptives, if mentioned at all, must be cast as unreliable in preventing pregnancy and disease. Explains Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, who helped draft the original legislation: "The programs simply tell them the more sex they have outside of marriage, the less will be their prospects for human happiness."