Rebranding Abstinence Only

"Well aware that their cause is in trouble and unpopular, purity proponents are revamping their image to appear more mainstream," reports Jessica Valenti. "Think tanks like the Independent Women's Forum and Concerned Women for America, abstinence-only organizations, religious leaders and legislators" are reacting to the Obama administration's "cutting most abstinence-only education funding from the 2010 budget." At the National Abstinence Education Association's (NAEA's) "annual lobby day in March, high on the list of priorities was developing a strategy for continuing to receive federal dollars." In April, NAEA director Valerie Huber told a Capitol Hill briefing, "This is not abstinence only, this is a holistic message that prepares and gives students all of the information they need to make healthy decisions." NAEA -- which hired the PR firm Creative Response Concepts in 2007 -- now calls its programs "abstinence centered," instead of "abstinence only." Huber said that "abstinence education talks about contraception." Valenti counters, "the only time abstinence-only classes will talk about contraception is when they discuss failure rates." WhyKnow, "a major provider of abstinence-only education curriculums," hired a public relations firm "to help recast its image," and changed its name to "On Point." The Medical Institute for Sexual Health, "a hard-core abstinence-only organization," renamed itself the Medical Institute, part of an attempt "to legitimize its message by rebranding itself as science-based."