Healthy Respect is a leading not-for-profit provider of abstinence education for thousands of students in downstate New York. Healthy Respect is a program of Project Reach. … The Healthy Respect curriculum for students in grades 7 to 12 is designed to guide young people in making good moral choices regarding the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and promotes abstinence in preparation for marriage by illustrating the power and delicacy of the human reproductive system.

It is important that all responsible citizens should know that there has been an ongoing political campaign against such programs. The Bush Administration has been encouraging and supportive of abstinence programs, but on the local level, special interest groups involved in promoting abortion and other moral offenses have tried to block them. Recently, Governor Spitzer and New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines announced a rejection of Federal Title V funding for abstinence-education programs while advocating “comprehensive sex-education programs.”

[CEO of Healthy Respect, and member of the Guild of Catholic Lawyers,] James Margand issued a reply saying that in denying more than $3 million to over 40 community-based organizations around New York State, the Commissioner and Governer risk being

at odds with parents, the primary educators of children in matters of human sexuality, who desire that teens receive a clear and consistent message regarding the benefits of abstinence and other healthy choices. … We urge the state to reevaluate this misguided decision because at a time when state budgets are strapped, the parents and taxpayers of New York question the unthinkable decision of rejecting $3 million of federal support for this common sense approach.

When we consider the responsible role of Christians in the political course of our nation, incidents such as this willful promotion of immoral teaching should remind us that political choices very much influence the very foundation of a culture’s moral integrity. The growing “culture of death,” which holds natural law in contempt, is a threat to all citizens. At the same time, we can be thankful for the many selfless people who are willing to dedicate their skills to explaining the facts and the consequences of neglecting them. What is at risk is more than millions of dollars. Millions of lives have been lost and many more will be lost if the dignity of life is not promoted through articulate defense of human virtue and practical common-sense voting in public elections.

See also:

• Healthy Respect
• References for the Catholic Family — An extensive listing of resources, with a section focusing on abstinence.