For the past seven years, virginity has ruled the sex education of area teenagers.

In that time, abstinence-only programs have come under fire nationwide, and after a cut in federal funding, the future is uncertain for the East Texas Abstinence Program’s Virginity Rules campaign.

Virginity Rules reaches 8,000 students in 25 area schools, according to its director. The program counsels teens, teaches them about pregnancy and the risks of sex, and encourages them to sign a “virginity vow” to wait until marriage to have sex.

“For a lot of kids, no one is telling them that abstinence is a real option,” said Program Director Tonya Waite. “Once you have the truth, you can make your own responsible decisions and control your emotions so you can wait until marriage.”

Comprehensive sex ed

The abstinence-only program falls under the umbrella of the Longview Wellness Center. The center also runs Gregg County’s only state-recognized family planning clinic.

Unlike Virginity Rules, which focuses on abstinence, the family planning program aims to offer comprehensive sex education.

“We provide all their options,” said Marcy Hall, a nurse practitioner at the center. “Of course, we recommend first and foremost abstinence, but if they don’t think they can remain abstinent, they do need to use protection, and we can go through all the different options we have.”

At the wellness center, low-income women and girls receive contraceptives, tests for sexually transmitted diseases, reproductive health care and family planning education. It does not offer abortions. About 500 teenage girls use the service each year, the center’s director said.

Hall said the number of sexually active teens seems to have remained constant during her nine years at the wellness center. Abstinence-only education receives millions of dollars from the U.S. government, but federal research indicates that programs in a study did not impact teens’ sexual activity .

“Personally, I think that would be great if it worked all the time,” Hall said. “It just doesn’t seem to be working. If we can prevent them from having sex at all until they’re married or at least until they’re old enough to make better decisions, we’d see fewer pregnancies and fewer STDs. But I don’t know how practical that is, honestly.”

Planned Parenthood

Abstinence is the best choice for teenagers, agrees Holly Morgan, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of North Texas.

“We don’t think kids should be running out there and having sex, but we do want to arm them with the education they need to stay healthy if they are going to make that choice,” she said.

Each year, nearly 400 Longview women visit the nearest Planned Parenthood clinic, which is in Tyler, Morgan said. Fewer than 20 of those patients are teenagers, and no abortions are performed at the clinic.

Planned Parenthood of North Texas operates nearly 30 clinics. It is expanding and would “love” to open a location in Longview, Morgan said.

“When you give someone only part of the picture – and that’s what abstinence education does – it can be a really dangerous thing,” she said. “We have to be realistic and know kids are out there having sex, or teen pregnancy or STD rates would not be that high.”

Abstinence funding cut

Waite notes federal statistics that show teens are having less sex and becoming pregnant less often than they were in the early 1990s, when teenage sexual activity was at its peak. The East Texas Abstinence Program launched Virginity Rules in 2001. Waite said she’s not qualified to say whether there’s a correlation between the program and the drop in teen sex and teen pregnancies.

“There is evidence that the students enrolled here in East Texas taking our 10-week course show a great difference in their knowledge, attitudes and behavior,” she said, citing survey results conducted after courses. “That’s all I can say for sure.”

Virginity Rules has received about $800,000 per year in federal abstinence grants since it started. In October, Waite and others learned their request for continued funding had been denied.

At a crossroads, the program has reduced staffing from eight positions to 2 1/2 (The Longview Wellness Center reassigned most of the employees whose jobs were cut, Waite said).

Virginity Rules is seeking private funding from donors, and Waite hopes Virginity Rules can reposition itself as a seller of abstinence curriculum. The program offers four workbooks that promote abstinence and aim to boost teens’ self-confidence and decision-making skills.

With employees, curriculum and its media campaign, Waite said, the program costs about $105 per student. When the federal funding was cut, Waite said, all but one of 25 area schools agreed to buy the abstinence curriculum for their students. “It was just unbelievable,” she said.

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Does Virginity Rules work?

Results of a 2006 Virginity Rules survey showed East Texas teenagers’ attitude about sex before marriage changed after they participated in Virginity Rules education, but the survey did not measure whether the curriculum reduced teens’ sexual activity.

“It would cost $1 million to study the effectiveness of the program, tracking students over four to six years,” said East Texas Abstinence Program Director Tonya Waite.

That’s money the program does not have, she added.

The East Texas Abstinence Program surveyed 2,559 students at area junior high and high schools before and after they participated in Virginity Rules education in 2006. The average age for the students was 13 years, seven months.

Survey findings

I. Avoiding pregnancy, STDs

The best way for teenagers to avoid unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections is to wait until they are married before having sex.

Before Virginity Rules program: 78.2 percent agree
After: 83 percent agree

II. Future benefits

Will abstinence make it a lot easier to get a good education, become married and have a career?

Good education
Easier: 56.7% before, 59.1% after
No difference: 22.3% before, 18.8% after

Future marriage
Easier: 55% before, 61% after
No difference: 20% before, 14% after

Future career
Easier: 47% before, 53% after
No difference: 33% before, 23% after

III. Abstinence for nonvirgins
A teen who has had sex would be better off to stop having sex and wait until later, such as after high school or until marriage.

Before: 71.6 percent
After: 74.5 percent

IV: Saying no

If someone tries to get you to have sex, you feel confident you can say no.

Before: 74% strongly agree
After: 78% strongly agree

V. Will you abstain?

Whether or not you have had sex, in the future do you plan to abstain until marriage”

Before: 61.9% yes
After: 65.2% yes

VI. Avoid risky behavior

My friends and I can have fun without sex, drugs or alcohol.

Before: 82% agree
After: 84% agree

VII. Remembering the class

Did you personally attend class when the abstinence program was presented”

Yes: 77.9%
Not sure: 8.6%
No: 13.5%

Source: East Texas Abstinence Program

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Abstinence programs don’t help, don’t hurt

The most comprehensive study of abstinence-only programs in the United States showed that they had no effect on the sexual abstinence of teenagers.

The nine-year, $8 million study of federally funded programs, by Mathematica Policy Research, also found that young people in abstinence programs were no more likely to have unprotected sex than youths who did not participate in such programs. Critics of abstinence-only programs have raised concerns about that issue.

In a program, Not in a program

Never had sex, 49%, 49%
Abstinent in the past year, 56%, 55%
Had sex, always used a condom, 23%, 23%
Had sex, sometimes used a condom, 17%, 17%
Had sex, never used a condom, 4%, 4%

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Child touts merits of Virginity

Kristen Lewis was nervous.

A 13-year-old girl with bouncy red hair, Kristen had agreed to speak in a commercial for Virginity Rules, the local teenage abstinence campaign.

“I’ve never been on TV,” she said.

But she knew it was for a good cause. Since 2001, Virginity Rules has taught East Texas teenagers the virtues of abstinence until marriage and has provided them with information about unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Program directors say their message reaches 25 area school districts and around 8,000 students such as Kristen each year.

Kristen is an eighth-grader at Jefferson Junior High School. Jefferson is the seat of a county that had the highest teen pregnancy rates in the Longview area over a five-year period through 2005, the most recent statewide information available.

As she lined up for her turn in front of the camera, Kristen talked about the importance of Virginity Rules, the only form of sex education she said she has received in school. The curriculum was provided by the East Texas Abstinence Program, a division of the Longview Wellness Center.

“In sixth grade, Virginity Rules came to our school, and all of a sudden me and my little sister started to come to the meetings,” she said.

Kristen said she wants to set goals and become married before she has children. One of her cousins in Jefferson has a baby. She’s 15 years old.

“I guess they didn’t have (Virginity Rules) when she went to school,” she said.

Abstinence education would have prevented the pregnancy, Kristen said.

“She wouldn’t have had sex. It gives you choices not to, like, have sex,” she said. “If they ask you to go to their car or something, say no. Like, walk away.”

Kristen’s turn before the camera was approaching. She had another reason to be nervous that day.

An ABC News team was in Longview for a national story about teenage pregnancy. They were filming Virginity Rules as Virginity Rules filmed its commercial.

After memorizing her lines, Kristen took her seat in the spotlight, and Joe Fuentes, owner of a local Web and video production company, offered direction.

“Excellent. I love your hair. Very good,” Fuentes said.

“I make these promises to myself,” Kristen recited. “I will abstain.”

“That’s very good,” Fuentes told her. “And be a little more powerful with your voice, OK? Three, two, one – go!”

She said it again, and he asked her to repeat the final phrase.

“I will abstain.”

Again.

“I will abstain.”

Again.

“I will abstain!”

“Good,” Fuentes said. “Perfect.”

She stood up, and another girl sat down. Afterward, munching on a bag of Doritos, Kristen said her first TV spot had not been that bad.