Page 16
June 27, 2018
Sex Ed
on the
Line
C ontinueD froM f ront
also to support staff in schools.
In communities of color, it’s a bit
more of a taboo.”
Williams said the fact that teen
pregnancies have diminished in
recent years is proof that compre-
hensive sex education works.
“Look at the statistics. Num-
bers don’t lie and we have been
able to make such huge progress,”
she said. “But we don’t need the
government to censor us.”
Talking to their children about
sex is often difficult for people
of color, because it’s tradition-
ally been less acceptable than
some other cultures. But funding
through Title X grants through
Multnomah County have helped
nonprofits give parents and educa-
tors the tools they need – the facts
and science about sex – and as a
result, teen pregnancy rates have
gone down dramatically in our
area.
According to the Oregon
Health Authority, from 2001 to
2015, teen pregnancies for 15 to
17 year olds decreased from about
32 for every 1,000 females to 11
per 1,000.
That will no longer be the
case if the federal government’s
“gag rule” for Title X grants goes
forward, said Jimmy Radosta,
spokesman for Planned Parent-
hood Oregon.
“Everything about this gag rule
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Jimmy Rodasta, spokesman for Planned Parenthood Oregon, said a new gag rule on discussing the
full range of options for preventing pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases is dangerous and
will reverse gains made against unintended pregnancies and STD rates.
is dangerous and will reverse all
the great progress and unintended
pregnancy and STD rates,” Rado-
sta said. “We are deeply concerned
that this will take us backwards at
a time we can’t afford to be doing
this.”
Multnomah County in 2015
used $1.25 million in Title X
grants to educate 15,000 teens,
train 107 teachers and engage 329
parents and caregivers in 32 mid-
dle and high schools throughout
the county.
After receiving that same
amount for three years, last year
Health and Human Services ter-
minated the county’s grants with-
out explanation. The county has
joined a class action lawsuit ob-
jecting to the cancellation. In five
cases, federal judges have ruled
those types of terminations un-
lawful, meaning HHS must still
process grant applications. But
whether the federal government
will appeal those rulings is un-
known at this time, according to
the county, so many programs are
in limbo.
The 2015 funding from Title X
was administered by the county in
partnership with Planned Parent-
hood Columbia Willamette, Lati-
no Network, Self Enhancement
Inc., the Native Youth and Family
Center, and Boys & Girls Clubs of
Portland.
Kim Toevs, director of the Ad-
olescent Sexual Health Equity
program for the county, said it’s
important to keep a wide range of
information about sexual health
and pregnancy legal. She said
the White House restrictions are
based on morality concerns, not
science, and that’s not what Con-
gress intended.
“The new rule is a burden on
communities of color,” she said.
Veronica Leonard, health and
wellness manager for the Latino
Network, said the data is clear that
Title X-funded sex education has
benefited communities of color.
“But now they are erecting
more barriers to information and
health services,” she said. “With-
out funding it’s harder to do our
work and people will lose jobs.”
According to Planned Parent-
hood Advocates of Oregon, the
administration’s new rules would
mean that the 41 percent of Or-
egonians who rely on Planned
Parenthood would lose access to
essential services like birth con-
trol, cancer screenings, and STD
testing and treatment.
In addition, if Planned Parent-
hood is excluded entirely from Ti-
tle X funding, because they offer
abortion services (for which they
use no federal funds), that would
mean other Title X-funded sites
in the state, already stretched thin,
would have to increase their con-
traceptive client caseloads by 69
percent.
The new rules would also place
new restrictions for doctors, nurs-
es, hospitals and any other health
provider working under Title X
to tell their patients how they can
safely and legally access abortion.
Title X is the only federal grant
program dedicated to family plan-
ning and related health services,
and was designed to meet the
needs of low-income families and
those with no insurance.
The Administration’s new re-
strictions are opposed by the
American Medical Association,
the American College of Physi-
cians and the American College
of Obstetricians and Gynecolo-
gists, along with more than 110
other public health organizations,
according to Planned Parenthood.
Last month, U.S. Sens. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., Tammy Bald-
win, D-Wisc., and Kirsten Gilli-
brand, D-N.Y., introduced a res-
olution opposing the restrictions
claiming they would “undermine
the health care access for millions
of patients.”
Dr. David Barbe, president of
the AMA, released a statement
that his group is “particularly
alarmed” by government interfer-
ence in patient-physician relation-
ships.
“High-quality medical care
relies on honest, unfiltered con-
versations between patients and
their physicians,” he wrote. “Ti-
tle X is popular, successful and
has had bipartisan support for
decades. We are at a 30-year low
for unintended pregnancy and a
historic low for pregnancy among
teenagers – largely because of ex-
panded access to birth control. We
should not be walking that prog-
ress back.”