Sex Ed in Mississippi: Why 'Just Wait' Just Doesn’t Work

This week, Planned Parenthood in Mississippi and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) released a report on the saturation of taxpayer-funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs throughout the state of Mississippi and the status of sex education, or lack thereof, provided in Mississippi public schools. The report, titled Sex Education in Mississippi: Why ‘Just Wait' Just Doesn't Work, details the poor sexual health outcomes among adolescents in Mississippi, the state's heavy investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, and the lack of sex education required in public schools.

Key indicators for health among Mississippi's adolescents present a bleak picture. Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate in the country. Young people in the state also rank above the national average for rates of risky sexual activity, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. The state's poor sexual health outcomes make it clear that young people lack access to the adequate sexual and reproductive health information and care they need to protect themselves and make safe and healthy decisions.

The report also makes clear that the federal government's heavy investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage funding over the past few decades has promulgated a myriad of state policies, state agencies, and community-based organizations focused on promoting an abstinence-only-until-marriage ideology throughout the state. The trickle-down effect of the funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and the industry it created has impacted states throughout the nation, with a disparate impact on Southern states, and this could not be truer in Mississippi.

Though a shift away from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is taking place at the national level spurred by overwhelming evidence proving these programs to be ineffective, they continue to prosper in Mississippi. Federal funding for such programs may have just started to dry up in favor of more comprehensive approaches to sex education that include information about abstinence and contraception, among other topics; however, Mississippi continues to see a steady stream of abstinence-only-until-marriage programming and it will take time and vigilance before a shift away from the abstinence-only approach is seen in the state.

Planned Parenthood in Mississippi and SIECUS partnered together to take a closer look at the information students are receiving in public schools and the messages delivered by school-based and community-based abstinence-only-until-marriage programs reaching youth across the state of Mississippi. We found that Mississippi school districts and the Mississippi Department of Human Services abdicate their responsibility to provide medically accurate information to students and instead rely on failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programming. It is clear from the evidence detailed in the report that a fundamental change is needed in how Mississippi educates its young people and prepares them to be sexually healthy adults.

The majority of sex education programs in Mississippi, whether provided by schools, state agencies, community organizations, or churches, take an abstinence-only-until-marriage approach, and messages promoting abstinence-until-marriage are pervasive in the state-appearing on billboards, print media, in radio and television ads as well as in formal programs. Young people in Mississippi are practically bombarded with messages about staying abstinent until marriage. In addition, many of these programs, media campaigns, and activities are supported by federal funds.

In Fiscal Year 2008 alone, Mississippi received $5,742,594 in federal funds for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, which was the eighth largest funding amount awarded to any state. By far, the largest recipient of abstinence-only-until-marriage funding in the state is the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) which received a total of $1,428,753 for Fiscal Year 2008. With its federal funding, MDHS operates the "Just Wait" Abstinence Program which includes a statewide media campaign, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, conferences, an annual rally, and school presentations that reach youth throughout the state of Mississippi.

Mississippi schools do not fare much better in providing accurate sex education to students. State law does not require schools to teach sexuality education or provide instruction in HIV, STD, or pregnancy prevention; however, if schools choose to teach any of these topics, state law requires that they stress abstinence-only-until-marriage.  Furthermore, many schools have ceded sex education to outside groups that are allowed to conduct classes and other activities in the schools with little-to-no oversight. Students are therefore at risk of receiving inaccurate and ideologically biased instruction. The lack of any statutory requirement to provide evidence-based, medically accurate sexuality education, and the reliance on outside groups providing abstinence-only-until-marriage instruction in the schools, has resulted in a myriad of different, but equally ineffective, programs which leave young people at risk.

In Mississippi's classrooms, the impact is real. The information and programs delivered to students use fear and shame tactics to promote abstinence until marriage, reinforce antiquated gender stereotypes that impose a double standard on young women, provide outright, inaccurate information, and use outdated materials-some which are 20 years old. For example, the Leland School District distributes a pamphlet to students, entitled "The Truth About...Sex & Love."  It states, among other things, that sex outside of marriage "is playing Russian Roulette with your emotions, self-respect, health, and your [sic] future."

In another example, some information provided to students is wholly outdated. Information on AIDS included in the 1994 edition of, Fearon's Health (2nd ed.), a textbook used in Forest Municipal school district, gives students a history lesson on the epidemic rather than providing any current information. Its most recent statistics for AIDS are from 1991, including statistics indicating a mortality rate from 1981-1991 of 64 percent. By contrast, the estimated AIDS mortality rate in 2006 was 38 percent.

To mention just one other egregious example, of which there are many, the "Not Now" abstinence-only-until-marriage program, delivered to students in four Mississippi Delta counties, has students participate in a mock wedding ceremony. As part of the ceremony, the bride presents the groom with a dirty sneaker as a wedding present. The dirty sneaker signifies "a lifestyle of impurity" and relays the message that no sock (representing a condom) could ever fully protect the foot from dirt and diseases. The groom, on the other hand, gives the bride a clean sneaker representing his "purity up until marriage." At the end of the wedding activity, the students "pledged to remain pure" and bring clean tennis shoes to marriage. While this is awful messaging in and of itself, research also shows that 88 percent of students who pledge to remain abstinent until marriage fail to keep this pledge and have the same STD rates as those who didn't take a pledge. They are also less likely to use contraception when they do become sexually active.

What is made clear by this report is that Mississippi is failing to provide young people with the information they need to make healthy decisions and avoid unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV/AIDS. Most disturbingly, the Department of Human Services, which is seen as a trusted state agency, plays a large role in disseminating this ineffective programming to young people instead of equipping them with public health information that is medically accurate and based in science.

Every major medical and public health organization in this country and around the globe agrees that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are not best for young people and believe in the importance of providing comprehensive sexuality education. It is time for Mississippi to follow the route that we know works in meeting the health needs of our young people: end abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the state and implement comprehensive sexuality education. Public policy in the Mississippi must be made to follow the evidence and commit to a bold new plan to implement comprehensive sex education.  The taxpayers and young people of Mississippi deserve nothing less.