Students at Woodland Park High School are getting their sex education instruction from Choices, an anti-abortion “pregnancy resource center” with ties to Andrew Wommack’s ministry.
“It is grossly inappropriate to bring in an organization like that that’s a religious-backed organization into a public high school,” said Jeffrey Geer, a WPHS parent and a member of the Woodland Park City Council.
According to Geer, in September parents received an email with a list of options for their student’s sex ed requirements. The three options included “direct Instruction in Class, led by WPHS teachers and a guest speaker from Choices,” and two remote learning options.
“One of the things that jumped out at me in the email is that they were bringing Choices in to do the discussion,” recalled Geer. “My wife and I had a brief conversation about it. We just decided we’ll let it ride, so to speak, so we didn’t opt out. We let him take part in the normal health class, normal experience.”
Geer feels his son’s sex ed experience at WPHS was anything but normal. “What you would expect from Choices — anti-abortion rhetoric and abstinence, pushing stuff like that,” he said. “We live in a pro-choice household, we believe very strongly in reproductive rights. When they got into anti-abortion rhetoric, he actually started asking questions and got shut down by his teacher to stop asking questions, which we’re still not very happy about.”
The Woodland Park School District and Choices did not respond to an emailed request, but emails obtained via a Colorado Open Records Act request show the curriculum is aligned with Education for a Lifetime, a program developed by Colorado Springs-based anti-abortion center chain Life Network. According to the schedule, students began taking part in Education for a Lifetime’s “Pursue” program on Oct. 14. Education for a Lifetime’s website describes Pursue as a “sexual risk avoidance (SRA) program for teens” that “Emphasizes avoiding sexual activity in order to stay in school, attain a quality education, and focus on goals and dreams.”
In 2017, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health researchers published review papers in the Journal of Adolescent Health on the efficacy for abstinence or SRA programs. “The weight of scientific evidence shows these programs do not help young people delay initiation of sexual intercourse,” said co-author John Santelli, professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School. “While abstinence is theoretically effective, in actual practice, intentions to abstain from sexual activity often fail. These programs simply do not prepare young people to avoid unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases.”
According to the researchers, these programs also violate adolescent human rights, withhold medically accurate information, stigmatize or exclude many youth, reinforce harmful gender stereotypes, and undermine public health programs.
In 2022 Teresa Diamond, the executive director of Choices, appeared on Wommack’s Truth and Liberty livecast to discuss the services offered by Choices and repeat commonly contested claims about the harms caused by abortion. According to IRS documents, in 2020 Andrew Wommack Ministries gave Choice $22,165. The group also gave $120,000 to Life Network that year.
Wommack and his supporters have also had a significant impact on the Woodland Park School District, where a conservative board majority has hired controversial superintendent Ken Witt, adopted American Birthright social studies standards, and has hemorrhaged students to nearby districts.
“Grossly inappropriate,” said Geer. “It’s completely ridiculous and just absolutely disgusting to come in and tell a bunch of kids that abortion is wrong and that you shouldn’t go and get one. It is just completely, flagrantly inappropriate … it’s just got to the level of ignorant curriculum this district is deliberately pushing because of this ideology that they have that is just not compatible with secular education.”
