NEW YORK — A prominent leader of the abstinence-only sex education movement has been appointed to a senior position at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, joining several other social conservative activists in the leadership ranks at HHS.
Valerie Huber, named this week as chief of staff for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, had served since 2007 as leader of the National Abstinence Education Association, which recently renamed itself as Ascend. She previously served as abstinence education coordinator for the state of Ohio, overseeing abstinence programs serving over 100,000 students annually.
Over the years, Huber established herself as one of the leading advocates of programs that stress the benefits of sexual abstinence, as opposed to comprehensive programs that include instruction about contraception. She has been particularly critical of the federally funded Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program created while Barack Obama was president and now targeted for elimination by President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The healthiest message for youth is one that gives youth the skills and information to avoid the risks of teen sex, not merely reduce them,” Huber wrote in an article last October.
Regarding Huber, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said Wednesday, “It’s disappointing that President Trump continues to make appointments that put partisan ideology ahead of public health and science.”
