Addressing risky behavior that leads youth astray

In the cultural wars, Obria, a nonprofit chain of pro-life clinics offering a holistic health approach for women, just scored an amazing win. They were given a two-year Title V grant in the amount of $450,000 per year to teach sexual risk avoidance in the states of California and Washington. It is a significant step toward healing a culture steeped in ignorance, which has been critically wounding bodies and souls.

Operating on the assumption that young people engage in sex outside of marriage, public school sex education has become a promoter of it. It is a model destined for failure, focused on accommodating dangerous and immoral behavior rather than reversing it.

Last year, two scientific reviews made headlines concluding that abstinence-until-marriage programs fail to protect kids and also violate their human rights by not supporting their sexual activity. The premise of accommodating license over morality, however, is not only at odds with moral, healthy living, but at odds with numerous other studies reporting that “sexual-risk avoidance” programs reduce risky behaviors and even increase academic success in students.

Much-needed U-turn

The Planned Parenthood sex education model has dominated public schools while abstinence education is actually illegal in the state of California. But the comprehensive sex-risk avoidance model is gaining national acceptance and funding, according to Kathleen Eaton Bravo, an Orange Coast Legate and founder and CEO of Obria, a chain of pro-life medical clinics. Obria offers comprehensive life-centered health to women at 30 clinics in five states with the aim to reach 200 sites by 2021.

“To promote a culture of life, it is important to address the behaviors that lead young people astray by offering education in sexual risk avoidance,” Bravo explained. As the mother of three adult sons and as a post-abortive mom, Bravo understands first-hand that education is the key to making good decisions. Under the Trump administration, she said there is now a greater willingness to fund such programs.

Last October, Obria became the first California-based pro-life organization in 37 years to receive a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services under Title V to teach sex-risk avoidance. “All of our affiliate clinics are implementing the program,” Bravo said. “We expect to see 15,000 students in the first year.”

 Motivation over threat 

Obria Executive Director Mauricio Leone wrote the grant, to teach the curriculum created by the Center for Relationship Education – which bases everything on science supported by research – to promote healthy relationships. It uses the “whole person” approach, nurturing the body, mind, and heart, rather than only focusing only on sexual behavior. And instead of resorting to negativism and threats, it seeks to motivate young people to be their best by simply imparting the facts.

Leone, who is married with two young daughters, was initially impressed by Obria’s pro-life mission, and at first volunteered to write grant proposals. He was soon hired full time and became certified as a risk-avoidance specialist through Ascend – a national organization that represents the field of Sexual Risk Avoidance education as an optimal health strategy to improve opportunities.

“What is being taught now is much more comprehensive than just abstinence education,” Leone said. “It uses the latest scientific information to teach about sexual health and includes the emotional, psychological, relational, emotional, and physical. The main goal is to eliminate all risks associated with sexual activity.”

“While the typical sex education program teaches how to use condoms, we are presenting an entire picture of what a human being is,” Leone said. “Everything we teach is factual and science-based. We inform on the consequences of STDs, and relate methods of contraception— though we don’t normalize them— as we educate about the risks, and show that no contraception is 100 percent effective.”

Given that California does not allow such education in their schools, Leone said that they will train educators to implement the program in their clinics — for teaching patients directly — and in other settings such as churches, as well as Christian and Catholic schools. “I just heard that the Archdiocese of San Antonio is partnering with the University of Texas to implement this curriculum in Catholic schools in Texas,” he said.

In Washington, the program will be offered to the public schools since it is not illegal there. According to Bravo, since many parents in California are not aware that sexual risk avoidance education is not allowed in public schools, she hopes to inform and encourage them to support legislation to change that law.

“This grant was perfect for us, to empower young people to change their lives for such a time as this,” Bravo said. “Now the doors are open again, and committed to life-affirming education.”

PATTI ARMSTRONG is a Legatus magazine contributing writer