In a statement released on May 10, Focus on the Family dismissed a new report that concludes parents are only qualified to teach their children about sex if they endorse condom use.
The report Focus on the Family called “pure propaganda” was released from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) on May 4. It was titled “Parents’ Beliefs About Condoms and Oral Contraceptives: Are They Medically Accurate?”
“AGI gets its marching orders from Planned Parenthood, so it isn’t surprising that this report, like all AGI reports, toes the Planned Parenthood ‘safe-sex’ line,” said Family Abstinence Department Manager Linda Klepacki of FOTF. “It is pure propaganda, an all-out assault on parents. In essence it says parents are incapable of teaching their kids the facts of life without Planned Parenthood’s help. That’s just plain arrogant.”
In the report, parents were encouraged to teach kids that condom-use is the best way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The assumptions of Planned Parenthood used AGI findings that are not accurate, according to Klepacki.
“The real truth is,” refuted Klepacki, “the National Institutes of Health report—a landmark report the new AGI study glossed over—determined that condoms are about 85 percent effective per use in reducing the transmission of HIV and generally effective in reducing female-to-male transmission of gonorrhea. For all other STDs, the expert panel convened by the NIH found insufficient evidence to call condoms an effective prevention method.”
She added, “The CDC (Center for Disease Control) recently published a report saying it cannot recommend condoms as a primary prevention method against the sexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV has been linked with nearly all cases of cervical cancer, which kills more women in the United States than AIDS does.”
The bottom line, Klepacki explained, is that “AGI is not promoting responsible parenting; it is promoting business for Planned Parenthood.”
“AGI is upset that so many parents have seen through their latex façade,” she said. “As survey after survey has confirmed, most parents want their kids to remain abstinent until marriage. AGI and Planned Parenthood should be supporting parents in giving their kids the abstinence message parents instinctively know is best.”
