The Huffington Post expounded on the “dangers” of a pro-life woman that President Donald Trump appointed as the chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health at Health and Human Services (HHS) in a Tuesday story.
Because Valerie Huber is an advocate for abstinence education who served as the president and CEO of the National Abstinence Education Association and managed Ohio’s state-funded Abstinence Education Program from 2004-2007, HuffPo describes her as a “long-time promoter of a dangerous, ineffective abstinence-only agenda.”
“Donald Trump has done it again,” HuffPo contributor and president of the National Organization for Women Terry O’Neill wrote. “After appointing climate denier Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA, anti-public education crusader Betsy DeVos to the Department of Education, and opponent of women’s and LGBT rights Roger Severino to head the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump has picked longtime abstinence education advocate Valerie Huber to an important post at HHS.”
Huber “ignores research data” like the president who “reject[s] science,” and promotes “transparently sexist principles” rather than embracing pro-life sex education policies, citing abstinence program “Choosing the Best,” O’Neill said. Choosing the Best is an abstinence-centered sex education curriculum aimed at reducing the initiation of teen sex.
O’Neill failed to mention that students who received Choosing the Best education were 1.5 times more likely to delay the onset of sexual behavior. “Schools and policymakers should pay close attention to these encouraging results because they emphasize the fact that students are best served when they receive a Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) abstinence program,” said Huber. A national survey collaborates Huber’s claim, finding that roughly 90 percent of adults and 93 percent of teens believe that high schoolers should be given a strong message about abstinence from society.
“Our nation’s family planning and contraception policies must not be based on fairy tales,” O’Neill wrote, adding that Huber’s agenda is “dangerous, ineffective, and inaccurate.”
O’Neill concluded that Huber’s “zeal for misleading young people about sex, sexuality, and healthy relationships puts their health, welfare, and even their lives at risk.”
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