NYCLU Slams Post in Sex Ed Scrap

The New York Post ran an editorial Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 questioning the state Health Department’s decision to reject federal Title V funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. The newspaper based its skepticism, in part, on the notion that state Health Commissioner Richard Daines can “claim as allies the radical miscreants at the New York Civil Liberties Union, who on the same day that he made his announcement released a report slamming the state’s abstinence programs.”

Donna Lieberman, the NYCLU’s chief miscreant, sent the Post the following rebuttal:

To the Editor:

Why question the state Health Department’s decision to stop wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs? Surely, financing failure with public money is bad policy. It isn’t “free” federal money. Last year, the state paid nearly $4 million in matching funds for these programs.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is not alone in “slamming” abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. A consensus of the medical and scientific communities agrees that the programs do not work. A 2007 study mandated by Congress reached the same conclusion.

Donna Lieberman
Executive Director
NYCLU