Former Surgeon General Impugns Lack of Sex Ed

At a Community Health Centers of Arkansas summit on health care last week, former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders said that insufficient sex education in schools makes children vulnerable to sexual assault and sexually transmitted diseases. She also blasted abstinence-only programs, according to the Arkansas News Service.

“We walk around and our government says, ‘Oh, Dr. Elders, you know condoms will break.’ That’s right, they will. But I want to assure you that the vows of abstinence break far more easily than those latex condoms,” Elders said.

Colorado passed a law this year requiring schools that have sex education to include “science-based” information about contraception.

Elders was appointed by former President Bill Clinton as  Surgeon General in 1993 but resigned in 1994 after suggesting that masturbation should be taught in schools to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.