Raising Expectations in the Rockies: Colorado’s Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Industry and the Imperative for Real Sex Education

Dec 04, 2012
  • Description

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. The trickle-down effect of the funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and the industry it created has impacted states throughout the nation, including Colorado.Though a shift away from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is taking place at the national and state levels, spurred by overwhelming evidence proving these programs to be ineffective, there continues to be a strong abstinence-only-until-marriage industry prospering in Colorado. Federal funding for such programs has begun to dry up in favor of more comprehensive approaches to sex education that include information about both abstinence and contraception, among other topics, at the same time that Colorado law has also moved in this direction; however, Colorado continues to see a steady stream of abstinence-only-until-marriage programming, and it will take time and additional advocacy efforts before all young people in Colorado are receiving comprehensive sexuality education. In an effort to inform all of Colorado's residents about the colossal failure of these programs, the ongoing waste of taxpayer dollars, and the rebranding these organizations are doing in order to continue misinforming Colorado's youth, The Healthy Colorado Youth Alliance and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) have joined together to take a closer look at Colorado's abstinence-only-until-marriage industry and the effect it continues to have on Coloradan youth.