Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an editorial in today’s Daily News on New York City’s new sex-education program:
The Daily News is so ecstatic about the new mandatory sex-education curriculum that it titles its editorial, “Go All the Way on Sex Ed.” It notes that the curriculum, “Reducing the Risk,” has worked in California. Indeed, it cites “a federal Centers for Disease Control study” as its source. That’s where its own credibility must be called into question.
As it turns out, there is no study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on this curriculum. But there is a study on how this curriculum fared in California that was published in Family Planning Perspectives; the study is posted on the website of the CDC, and that is because it met the CDC’s methodological standards.
Those who think this is being picky should consider the following: Family Planning Perspectives is a journal of the Guttmacher Institute, and this entity is the research arm of Planned Parenthood.* Now does anyone believe that Planned Parenthood would be associated with a study that undercuts its raison d’être? Just recently, researchers at John Jay College of Criminal Justice published a study on the “Causes and Consequences” of priestly sexual abuse, and even though the professors stated unequivocally that no bishop tried to affect the outcome, the very fact that the bishops’ conference requested the study was enough for critics to slam it as biased.
The Daily News also failed to state that this curriculum, which was foisted upon educators by Mayor Bloomberg, never gave parents an opportunity to discuss it. We have public hearings in New York City for proposed new stop lights, yet there were none on this curriculum.
In any event, there is no study by a federal agency on this curriculum, and those who published it had a vested interest in its results. In fairness, this should be acknowledged by the Daily News.
*Note: The Guttmacher Institute was named after Alan Guttmacher, a former president of Planned Parenthood, and was for many years its research arm. It is independent of Planned Parenthood now, though it receives funding from the organization.
