Editor’s note: This story is part of Family Values, a series investigating crisis pregnancy centers in Onondaga County. 

New York state requires public schools to teach sexual education classes. But in some Onondaga County schools, crisis pregnancy centers have offered abstinence lessons that clash with calls for reform. 

Crisis pregnancy centers are known for spreading misinformation on abortion. Some are religiously affiliated, and most are not licensed medical facilities. Offering abstinence education expands their reach beyond women seeking pregnancy care. 

One of those organizations, Care Net Pregnancy Center of Central New York, provides pro-abstinence seminars to between 25 and 30 schools, said Paul Marshall, the organization’s president and executive director. Marshall declined to name the schools that receive the center’s My Future My Choice program. 

After seeing what another local crisis pregnancy center went through, Care Net of CNY decided not to disclose names of schools to avoid putting them under undue stress, he said. New Hope Family Services received backlash for its involvement in local schools after Syracuse.com posted an article on its abstinence program.

New Hope previously offered a pro-abstinence sexual education program called Real Love Respects to high school students across central New York. One component of the center’s program was a skit intended to demonstrate the value of virginity through a comparison to chewing gum.

In a 2017 audio recording of the skit being performed at Charles W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville, a female instructor from New Hope gives a new piece of gum to a male student, saying the piece of gum was a special “gift.” After the student chewed the piece of gum, it was taken back by the instructor, who then repeated the skit with another male student. 

The chewing gum skit is common among crisis pregnancy centers and abstinence-only sexual education providers, said Caitlin Coulombe, associate director of Stop the Shaming. The New York-based coalition advocates for replacing abstinence-only sexual education in public schools. Items such as tape or cookies are also used in a similar context to the gum, she said. 

Care Net of CNY promotes sexual risk avoidance that empowers students to participate in healthy, safe behaviors, according to a handout from the center. 

Paul Marshall, president and executive director of Care Net of CNY, sits in the Liverpool center. Lauren Miller | Senior Staff Videographer

Coulombe and Gina Tonello were working with their children’s school districts to reform sexual education policy when Syracuse.com published its article. Tonello’s daughter recorded the 2017 chewing gum skit from New Hope, leading Tonello to create the Stop the Shaming website.

“Gina and I were kind of actually fighting the same fight at the same time without knowing it,” Coulombe told The Daily Orange. 

Tonello went to the Baldwinsville Central School District’s board meetings and ended the district’s relationship with New Hope fairly quickly, Coulombe said. Other schools also announced they had severed ties with the center after the Syracuse.com article, she said.

The program is not currently taught in any schools, said Kathy Jerman, executive director of New Hope. 

“We don’t have a director of that program so we’ve kind of just put it on hold,” she said. 

Many crisis pregnancy centers use sex education programs as a means of bringing a “religious agenda” into public schools, Coulombe said. New Hope often encourages students to sign purity agreements stating they will wait until marriage to have sex, she said. 

In a document containing presentation slides and handouts from a Real Love Respects lesson, one handout is titled “Why I am waiting for marriage.” It contains a brief statement and a space for a student to write their signature, among other things. 

“I make this commitment because I recognize this as the best way to protect myself both physically and emotionally and to safeguard my future,” the statement reads.

One presentation slide reads “Safe Sex?? Gambling with your future! 1 in 6 Condoms fail.” While that statistic is accurate, Coulombe said, New Hope only focuses on the failure rates in their presentations because its main goal is to educate students about the supposed dangers of premarital sex. 

There are no other slides referencing any form of birth control or proper contraceptive use in the document. Several slides, however, discuss various sexual transmitted diseases and infections, labeled under “Sexual Risks & Consequences.”

Schools that only use the Real Love Respects program aren’t teaching about contraception at all, Coulombe said. 

Another presentation slide defines abortion as “pain, physically & emotionally,” with the term “post abortion syndrome” written below in all caps. Several studies have refuted the existence of a post-abortion syndrome — a term crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life advocates created, Coulombe said. 

Post-abortion syndrome was part of New Hope’s post-abortion counseling education and post-abortion counseling, Jerman said. Studies have proven that women who have had abortions have higher levels of addiction, promiscuity and other issues later in their lives, she said. 

“We find that women, you know, for years and years will grieve for that baby and they may have symptoms such as depression,” Jerman said. 

The American Psychological Association found in a 2008 study that women who legally had one first-trimester abortion of an unplanned pregnancy face no greater relative risk of mental health problems than women who carry an unplanned pregnancy to term. 

The misinformation is only one part of the issue with Real Love Respects and abstinence-only programs, Coulombe said. 

The programs stigmatize sexually-active adolescents by claiming that people who aren’t abstinent are less worthy than those who are, Coulombe said. They reinforce negative gender stereotypes — emphasizing female purity and male sexual aggression, she said. 

Coulombe began working to change the Liverpool Central School District’s sexual education program after receiving a letter that informed her of the health class her son would be taking. The letter said in fine print that students would be instructed by a New Hope abstinence program, she said.

New Hope Family Services is a crisis pregnancy center in Syracuse. Doug Steinman | Staff Photographer

“When I looked up their website I was just absolutely horrified that they would invite in a pro-life, religious organization to teach about sex,” Coulombe said.

Coulombe’s reform efforts, which included writing letters, contacting teachers and attending board meetings, continued for about six to nine months before she saw progress, she said. The district announced they would no longer employ New Hope in May 2018. 

Both schools and parents disliked New Hope’s chewing gum skit, Coulombe said, adding that parents are often upset to hear that such a comparison was made regarding their child’s sexuality. Stop the Shaming has received “overwhelming” parent support in asking to remove these programs, she said. 

Jennifer Coman, former manager of Planned Parenthood’s Syracuse Health Center, said it’s important to know the significance of having access to health care, especially within the Syracuse community. 

A variety of family planning services, such as birth control and contraception, are provided at the health center, Coman said. The clinic, licensed under New York state, also offers annual preventative visits for women, including services such as Pap smears and breast exams, Coman said. Clients can receive testing for sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

One of the biggest health problems facing Syracuse is teen pregnancy, she said. STIs and infections are also prevalent Onondaga County, which ranked highest in New York for gonorrhea in 2014. The New York State Department of Health found the rate of chlamydia among females 10 to 19 years of age in Syracuse was double that of the state between 2012 and 2014.

The number of abortion procedures has declined significantly since 2005, Coman said. She attributed the decrease to greater use of birth control and availability of other contraceptive methods aside from abortion.

“More frequent use of better birth control gives a woman more control over their fertility,” she said. 

If you had an experience at a crisis pregnancy center in Onondaga County, The D.O. wants to hear from you. Please contact: esfolts@syr.edu | @emmafolts

Published on October 28, 2019 at 11:56 pm

Contact Emma: esfolts@syr.edu