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The New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) and New Mexico
State University (NMSU) quietly began to accept federal funding for
abstinence-only education programs in fall 2012, six years after DOH rejected a
federal grant for abstinence-only education in public schools. According to DOH
Spokesperson Kenny Vigil, the state had accepted more than $470,000 in federal
abstinence-only funds, to which the state added in-kind contributions of more
than $350,000. Vigil stated that the funding offered New Mexico another sex
education option. New Mexico reported the highest teen pregnancy rate and
highest chlamydia and gonorrhea rates in the country, and DOH stated that 30
percent of students under 15 reported they had had sex.
According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council
of the United States (SIECUS), DOH used the money to fund a community-based
curriculum called “Sex Can Wait” in Chavez, Cibola, Curry, Doña Ana, Eddy, Lea,
and Luna counties. SIECUS advocated for comprehensive sex education for teens
and tracked abstinence-only federal dollars. However, Vigil stated that DOH had
piloted the “Sex Can Wait” program, developed in 1994 by Dr. Michael Young, and
would offer the curriculum in Curry County middle school after-school programs.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and
the American Academy of Pediatrics both opposed abstinence-only education, and
a 2007 US Department of Health and Human Services study confirmed that students
who took abstinence-only courses were likely to have their first sex at the
same age and to have as many partners as students who did not receive
abstinence-based sex education. Critics noted that abstinence-based education
failed to teach teens about birth control and contraception.
Santa Fe Public Schools refused abstinence-only funding and
partnered with Planned Parenthood to provide comprehensive sex education for
public school students in grades 7–9.
