SACRAMENTO – A leading pro-family organization is demanding that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state superintendent of public instruction abandon a California ban on abstinence-only education in public schools.
SaveCalifornia.com pointed to a landmark study, titled "Effectiveness of an Abstinence-Only HIV/Sexually Transmitted Disease Risk-Reduction Intervention for Young African-American Adolescents," showing that abstinence education protects two-thirds of young teenagers from STDs and unwed pregnancies. The study was published Feb. 1, 2010, in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Now the group is sending an unwavering message to Schwarzenegger and California state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
"It's time to respect science and employ abstinence education to help save teens and pre-teens from sexually transmitted diseases that are at unacceptable levels," SaveCalifornia President Randy Thomasson said in a statement. "In light of these facts, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jack O'Connell should immediately drop their out-of-date prohibition of abstinence-only education in California public schools."