News

OTTAWA, Tue Apr 12, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An official of the United Way in Ottawa revealed that it has stopped funding for Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s sex-education program because it “doesn’t align with what we’ve established as priority goals in area of children and youth.”

Lawrence Greenspon, chairman of the United Way’s Community Services Cabinet, told the Ottawa Citizen that “there was no political agenda” behind the agency’s decision to cut funding to PP’s sex education program, but that the local United Way has decided that the best use of the funds they collect will be to focus on helping children succeed at school.

United Way has a history of support for Planned Parenthood and abortion in general.

Greenspon explained that following a 5 year study by local experts, staff, and volunteers, the agency overhauled its funding management and decided on two main priorities: helping preschoolers, through parenting and early-literacy programs, and supporting children in what the agency calls the “critical hours” after school, through homework clubs and other after-school programs.

The reasoning behind United Way’s strategy is that success at school will help young people avoid the risks inherent in becoming sexually active.

Planned Parenthood “has been doing some excellent work,” Greenspon said, but added, “We got 232 applications, and unfortunately, they (Planned Parenthood) were asking for a lot more money than we have to give.”

Planned Parenthood Ottawa’s executive director Heather Holland bemoaned the funding cut. “We are very disappointed. It’s a challenging blow,” she said, adding that their sex workshops, offering children and youths information on contraception and sexually transmitted infections, are presented to 3,800 Ottawa area young people annually.

Reference was made to skyrocketing rates of sexually transmitted infections in the area, with the Citizen quoting Dr. Isra Levy, the city’s medical officer of health, saying “infections are at a 10-year high, including a 4,900-per-cent increase in infectious syphilis and a 89-per-cent increase in chlamydia.”

However, numerous studies have found that more sex ed does not reduce STDs in young people.

One recent report issued in Scotland in December, 2010 found that the government’s “safer sex” campaigns, launched in 2001 to teach ever-younger audiences about condoms and other sexual practices intended to reduce the rates of teen pregnancies, abortions and sexually transmitted diseases, were a failure.

“Diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections among heterosexual men and women continue to increase; young people, aged less than 25, are the group most at risk of being infected with an STI,” the report said.