After 108 babies were born in a single year to the students of a Denver area high school, the Rocky Mountain News of Feb. 19, 1993
reprinted my resignation letter that had appeared in area newspapers three years earlier.
Three years ago tomorrow I resigned for a stupid reason from the Adams County District 14 Accountability Committee. Superintendent Richard Weber had just implemented a condom distribution program to reduce teen pregnancy and disease. I somehow had the backward notion that this would increase teen pregnancy, so I resigned in protest.
Eventually, though, we all read of Adams City High School's birth rate increase of 42% (May 5, 1992, "Teen moms abound at Adams High"). One birth for every eight girls yielded 108 children in one year. A record! A couple of years earlier, my resignation read:
To the District 14 Board of Education:
I am hereby resigning. By distributing condoms in Adams City High School, we are running the risk of increasing teen pregnancy, AIDS and venereal disease among our children.
When the board chose this course of action, it did not reference any studies that indicated condom distribution would help reduce teen sexual problems. Why? Because there are none. The studies show the opposite.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America financed a 1986 Harris poll, 'The Planned Parenthood Poll: American Teens Speak: Sex, Myths, TV and Birth Control.' The teens in the poll admitted that Planned Parenthood- approved 'comprehensive sex education courses' did affect their behavior: There was a 50% higher rate of sexual activity for them after the class, with no significant increase in birth control use.
Since the early 1970s, Congress has poured tens of millions of dollars into Planned Parenthood to help it bring sexuality curricula into our schools. During that time, the teen pregnancy rate soared by 90%, to more than a million each year, plus nearly 500,000 teen abortions per year, an increase of 230%.
A Johns Hopkins study reported by Zelnick and Kantner in Planned
Parenthood's 'Family Planning Perspectives' showed that from 1971 to 1976 unintended pregnancy was actually higher among contraceptive users than among non-users! In these years Planned Parenthood services became widespread to students.
How safe are condoms? 'Family Planning Perspectives' reported in October 1986 an 18% annual failure rate for 'safe sex' condoms.
The 'Planned Parenthood News' boldly stated, 'Our goal is to be ready as educators to help young people obtain sex satisfaction before marriage.' They meet their goal well.
Focus on the Family's James Dobson recently aired an interview with Kristi. With her boyfriend Jason, she attended a Planned Parenthood birth control class. The topics were so explicit and enticing that he persuaded Kristi to have sex with him immediately after the class in the front seat of his car, without protection.
Unhappy parents were assured they could keep their children out of the condom program. Oh, really? How about the parents of 14-year-old Susan, whose boyfriend pulls out a school condom? How were they to protect their daughter from this program?
The board says, 'Be realistic, teen-agers are going to have sex anyway.' That is fatalism, not realism. Sex ruins kids' lives. Do we lack faith in our children's character? If we expect 10th graders to have sex, they will. But if we challenge them with self-respect and abstinence, many will live up to that standard. Instead, we have set an impossible goal for our kids: Have sex and avoid the consequences.
I have pulled my children out of the district and will keep them out until basic morality, which is constitutional, returns."
Three years later, my kids are still out. The boys at Adams City are having a field day and the girls, well, they will pay the price for years to come. When a prediction contrary to intended results comes true, the wise will take notice. District 14 has yet to take notice.
-Bob Enyart, Denver talk radio host
2009 update: Nineteen years later, my kids are still out (and yes, we still have school-age children
), three boys with a combined 26 years of primary and secondary education yet to come!
See also the attached image of the June 1993
Rational Inspirer, my monthly newsletter back then, depicting the cover story, and that nearby Aurora's Gateway High School had 80 babies born that previous year.
-Bob Enyart
Bob Enyart Live, KGOV.com
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