Valerie Huber has been appointed by the Trump administration as the chief of staff for the Department of Health and Human Services.
What is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for?
"HHS administers more than 100 programs in medicine, public health, and social services. The department also oversees the Office of Adolescent Health, which is the main area of concern for advocates of comprehensive sex education. The office conducts research and training on preventing teen pregnancy and STDs".
Before appointment, Huber worked as the CEO for the organization Ascend. Ascend promotes the traditional approach of sex education through abstinence or sexual risk avoidance. Huber is also known for supporting the program "Choosing the Best". This program is geared towards juniors and seniors in high school with the goal of "asking students to take a commitment and abstinence pledge". Huber's stance "that mainstream culture normalizes premarital sex and contraceptives" shows her support for abstinence only education.
When analyzing data from states that provide abstinence only sex education, it is clear that states with traditional approaches to sex education are ineffective in reducing teen birth rates. For example, Texas is one of the states with abstinence only programs as the main form of sex education and the teen pregnancy rates are among the highest in the nation. It is clear that " Huber's aversion toward comprehensive sex education ignores national data".
Here at More Than Sex-ed, we promote open and honest dialogue about the state of sexual education. Although we believe it is healthy for teens to postpone sexual intercourse, abstinence only education is ineffective in reducing teen pregnancy and birth rates. When analyzing the available data, it is obvious that comprehensive sex education is more effective in reducing teen pregnancy and birth rates.
