Still, there is another, far worse blight upon Spokane. One so despicable, so fraudulent that I shudder at the very thought of them. I am, of course, talking about Teen-Aid, Inc.
Teen-Aid was founded in 1981 to promote abstinence-only education. From their "world headquarters" in Spokane, they have spent the last 27 years scamming school districts and the federal government out of millions of dollars in order to promote their ass-backward agenda.
Teen-Aid's biggest racket is the sale of curricula to school districts, teaching abstinence only sex education. Way back in 1994, a newsletter called The Textbook Letter completely ripped apart the Teen-Aid curricula (Read it: "Keep Them Dumb, Keep Them Pregnant"). Writing the lead article for the four-part examination, Textbook League president William J. Bennetta said of Teen-Aid:
I have examined several of Teen-Aid's items, including both Sexuality, Commitment & Family and Me, My World, My Future. All the pieces that I have seen are overtly polemical in both purpose and style, all rely on obvious and outrageous distortions, and some deal in pseudoscience whose falsity will be evident to anyone who has had any respectable education at all.
Ouch. If you have the time, please read all the articles as they are both entertaining and enlightening.
The Textbook League's refutation was followed in 2004 by a report from Representative Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) (Read it: "The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs," pdf document). The report found that abstinence only curricula -- including Teen-Aid's -- routinely included scientific errors, false information and gender stereotypes. For example, the curricula included false information about the effectiveness of contraceptives and the effects of abortions. The Waxman report concludes:
Under the Bush Administration, federal support for abstinence-only education has risen dramatically. This report finds that over two-thirds of abstinence-only education programs funded by the largest federal abstinence initiative are using curricula with multiple scientific and medical inaccuracies. These curricula contain misinformation about condoms, abortion, and basic scientific facts. They also blur religion and science and present gender stereotypes as fact.
Naturally, this report got agencies like Teen-Aid up in arms. LeAnna Benn, the "National Director" of Teen-Aid, even wrote a crazed little diatribe attempting to respond to the report. As you might expect it was filled with half-truths, straw men and any other number of fallacies. Though I think it does say a lot about the mental state of Ms. Benn.
Benn even went on Anderson Cooper's show way back in December 2004 in an attempt to defend her program. I could only find a transcript of the interview online. I would kill for a video, but I doubt many people recorded the show that night. Here is my favorite part, though:
[ANDERSON COOPER:] According to this congressional report, your teacher's manual claims that 5 percent to 10 percent of women will never again be pregnant after having a legal abortion. How did you come up with that?
LEEANNA BENN, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, TEEN-AID CURRICULUM: Well, the information came from the obstetrics and gynecology magazine that's printed for obstetrics and gynecologists, and they cite that between 5 and 10 percent of women who become pregnant will only have one pregnancy, and if that pregnancy is aborted, they may not have another one.
COOPER: But basically, you're extrapolating the idea to make it sound as if having the abortion is going to cause them to be sterile.
BENN: That's not -- that's not what we're extrapolating. But that is a possibility. (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: No, but that is what you're extrapolating.
BENN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: What you're saying is that, if you're saying that 5 to 10 percent of women will never again be pregnant after having a legal abortion, it makes it sound as if the legal abortion is what's going to cause them never to be pregnant again, no?
BENN: Well, there are consequences to legal abortions, just like there are consequences to...
COOPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE), we're not talking about...
BENN: ... (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
COOPER: ... whether there are consequences. I'm just saying, doesn't it sound to you as if what you're saying is, I mean, misleading, that what you're saying, you seem to be indicating that it -- by having a legal abortion, 5 to 10 percent of women will never be able -- will be sterile.
BENN: No. Five to 10 percent of women will not have a pregnancy again, is what the -- this says.
COOPER: OK, so you don't think it's misleading at all.
BENN: I do not.
Excuses, excuses. The passage Cooper quotes is obviously an attempt at misleading people, which is one thing that Teen-Aid actually excels at.
So what have we learned here today folks? First off, Teen-Aid, Inc. is a scam. They sell (pricey) materials to school districts that are full of errors, misleading statements and outright falsehoods. Secondly, this pseudo scientific bullshit that they pedal is making Spokane look terrible. Every time Teen-Aid or LeAnna Benn are mentioned in a news article or television interview, our name inevitably gets thrown in the mix. They are an embarrassment to this city.*
Coming up in part two of the series: LeAnna Benn: Welfare Queen!
Followed by part three: Marriage Friendly Communities?! LOL
* ~ On a related note, did you know that way back in 1990, the late state senator Jim West actually put forward a bill that would, among other things, outlaw teen sex? Did you know that this laughable bill was written by the good folks at Teen-Aid? The bill would also have ended the requirement that HIV/AIDS curricula be screened by the department of health for medical accuracy. Surprisingly, it did not pass. Even more surprisingly, it did not end the careers of either West or Benn. Too bad.
EDIT: Title changed to "Teen-Aid Riot" in an attempt to avoid less than savory search queries.
1 comments:
But if we stop teaching abstinence, then teens might start having sex again...
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