Do The Math 

Elizabeth Schroeder, Ed.D., M.S.W., is the executive director for Answer, a national sexuality education organization housed at Rutgers University. Dr. Schroeder is also the co-founding editor of the American Journal of Sexuality Education. Dr. Schroeder's full bio. More Sex:Positions.

Teen Pregnancy and Abortion Prevention ≠ Comprehensive Sexuality Education

I love Barack Obama. I love him for many reasons. But right now, I’m speaking as a sexuality educator.  I love that he regularly mentioned lesbian and gay people during the campaign.  I love that he pledged to end the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (okay, so he hasn’t gotten to that one yet). And I’m over the moon that he has openly supported comprehensive sexuality education— in the Senate as an original co-sponsor of the REAL (Responsible Education about Life) Act, throughout the campaign, and now as President.

Well, sort of.

He has proposed a federal budget that eliminates much of the harmful Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funding. And, in that very same budget, he did propose funding to support pregnancy prevention and abortion reduction programs. But while reducing unintended pregnancy and abortions are important and desired outcomes of sexuality education, they are not, nor should they be, the only goals of sexuality education. More importantly, however, funding teen pregnancy and abortion reduction is not the same thing as funding comprehensive sexuality education. By setting up such specific outcomes for potential funding, the Administration risks creating competition among organizations that should be – no, need to be – working together, especially in this challenging economic climate. This competition impedes our work toward accomplishing the goals of comprehensive sexuality education. Let me explain.

For many years now, I’ve come to see the sexuality education field – both comprehensive and abstinence-only-until-marriage proponents—as being very similar to an elementary school soccer game. If you’ve never seen one, the referee places the ball onto the field, blows the whistle, and moves quickly out of the way. As the crowd watches on the sidelines, both teams descend upon the ball en masse, kicking wildly, until the ball pops out and lands nearby.  The entire gaggle of players moves together to surround the ball and begins kicking again.  Sometimes the ball will advance, and sometimes it will move backward. Sometimes it will stay exactly where it is. Points may even be scored. On both sides, there will often be frustration, name-calling and even tears. The game is a race against time – and if no one scores, the game still ends when time is up. The excitement and energy abates, the referee collects the ball, and everyone simply goes home.

Today, the myriad youth-serving professionals who have anything to do with providing sexual health information or services are the players in this elementary school soccer game. The federal government is the referee, and the soccer ball is funding.  The teams are made up of a wide variety of approaches, goals, and ideologies. The fighting and limited progress speak for themselves.

With the prospect of the budget passing, and money being included for teen pregnancy prevention and abortion reduction programs and not comprehensive sexuality education programs, I have to admit, I’m worried. I’m worried that the general public will continue to misunderstand the breadth of what is needed via comprehensive sexuality education to help young people grow into healthy sexual beings.  I’m worried that focusing on teen pregnancy and abortion reduction will reinforce the mistaken perception that all kids are heterosexual, and that the bullying and homophobia running rampant in our schools nationwide is somehow less important than the possible outcomes of unprotected vaginal intercourse.  I’m worried that in focusing on pregnancy prevention and abortion reduction, the public and policymakers will incorrectly assume that sexuality education can start in high school or late middle school – when the keystone of the understanding, skills and self-esteem needed to make healthy choices about sexuality must be firmly planted in early childhood. And I’m worried that a funding stream looking to reduce teen pregnancy and abortion will, in such a tight economy, tempt organizations to revise their strategic or work plans – or even their very missions – in pursuit of the elusive dollar.

Just like the elementary school soccer game, our field would benefit extremely well from calling a “time out” to talk about a unified strategy for using whatever funding is included at the federal level – and for pushing for more. We need to avoid being so grateful to have any kind of funding relating to the work we do and hold the Administration’s feet to the fire to fulfill its promise to support comprehensive sexuality education. Otherwise, we will all continue to kick wildly at the soccer ball, exhausting ourselves and our resources without much to show for it all, until the referee’s whistle blows to let us know that the game is over.

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