John McCain Campaign to Brody File: Eliminating "Abstinence Only" Programs is Wrong
May 24, 2007
A spokesman for GOP presidential candidate John McCain tells The Brody File that he, “strongly opposes efforts by the Democratic-controlled Congress to eliminate abstinence-only sex education classes for school-aged children.”
At the end of June, Congressional Democrats will let time run out on $50 million dollars used to fund abstinence-only programs in public schools. The Brody File was aware of this development on Capitol Hill and asked for Senator McCain’s reaction to it. Here’s his full response as furnished by his campaign:
Senator McCain strongly opposes efforts by the Democratic-controlled Congress to eliminate abstinence-only sex education classes for school-aged children. Senator McCain believes the correct policy for educating young children on this subject is to promote abstinence as the only safe and responsible alternative. To do otherwise is to send a mixed signal to children that, on the one hand they should not be sexually active, but on the other here is the way to go about it. As any parent knows, ambiguity and equivocation leads to problems when it comes to teaching children right from wrong. Senator McCain believes that there are many negative forces in today’s society that promote irresponsible and dangerous behavior to our children. The public education system should not join this chorus of moral equivocation and ambiguity.”
It’s a pretty strong statement by Senator McCain. Clearly, he thinks abstinence is the way to go. My original question asked the following:
“Does he believe federal funds for “Abstinence only” programs should be the “only” alternative in public schools or does he believe federal funds should be used for other more comprehensive programs that teach about condoms?
He doesn’t specifically address the comprehensive programs other than you get the sense that he’s not a big fan of them. The statement above seems to leave some wiggle room when it comes to allowing federal dollars to be used for comprehensive sex education (condoms, etc). I asked for a clarification in a follow-up about this and here’s what I got:
"Senator McCain believes the best approach is to teach abstinence to children as it is the only truly safe and responsible policy. He is unequivocally opposed to Democrat-led efforts to eliminate federal funding for abstinence-only education in public schools."
Is abstinence funding going to be a “key issue” in 2008? No, of course not. But with religious conservatives searching for the “right” candidate, issues like this can help voters develop a clearer picture. Comments?
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