'How to Lobby Against Sex Ed': The Atlantic investigates Raymond B. Ruddy's war on Sex Education

October 14, 3:10 PMSex Education ExaminerSarah Estrella

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Raymond B. Ruddy speaks during the Life Prizes ceremony in Washington, Jan. 24

Fascinating article in The Atlantic today for anyone who follows sex education news and the politics surrounding what gets taught in schools and what doesn't:

Joe Eaton's article How To Lobby Against Sex Ed follows the money trail back to multimillionaire retireee and Gerard Health Foundation President Raymond B. Ruddy, "the premier benefactor of the abstinence-only sexual education movement" and "the only individual who has hired lobby firms during the debate over how to reform health care." 

Eaton reports that Ruddy spent $130,000 of his own money lobbying to push for abstinence-only sex education during the first two quarters of this year’s health care reform debate, and has spent $1.5 million on lobby fees since 2002.

Via Atlantic.com:

Ruddy declined a telephone interview. But asked about his strategy, he responded by email: “We should be doing everything we can in our society to ensure that our young people receive a complete education when it comes to the potential result of sexual activity prior to marriage.  The truth is the only sure way for young people to avoid STDs, unwanted pregnancies and abortion is to abstain from sexual activity.”

By all accounts, Ruddy’s is the loudest voice on Capitol Hill for abstinence-only sex education. In 2009 Ruddy spent more to lobby on the issue than any abstinence-only advocacy group, including Christian Coalition of America and the National Abstinence Education Association.

Ruddy has a point, to be sure: Abstaining from sexual activity is the only sure way for young people to avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancies. No sex educators anywhere are arguing differently, and abstinence is discussed in every sex education curriculum I'm aware of. But, President Obama and other leaders, bolstered by recent high-profile studies, recognize that abstinence-only education programs aren't cutting it and may actually have correlated to increases in unwanted teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates over the period of time that abstinence-only programs have been in place: Young people need and deserve comprehensive sex education that addresses a full spectrum of sexuality and safer sex options that will help them protect themselves and make educated decisions about their own behavior and the risks they choose to take or not take.

As someone who has been following this story and developments in American sex education as a professional, it's interesting, to say the least, to learn that a single individual (in this case an extremely conservative and extremely wealthy Catholic pro-life activist) can hold so much sway over the political processes that ultimately determine the extent of the education – or lack thereof – that teens across the country receive in public schools. As they say: Money talks. But is this how a democracy is supposed to work?

To learn more about some of the organizations on the other side of this issue, see my previous article on the October Sex Ed Month of Action Coalition and the Responsible Education About Life Act and check out some of these links to Sex Ed Month of Action Coalition members: Advocates for Youth, Choice USA, Law Students for Reproductive Justice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Sierra Club, and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom.

For more on Raymond B. Ruddy, the Gerard Health Foundation, and The Life Prizes from his perspective, click through for a well-done video of him telling his story, via LifePrizes.org