ACLU targets state's abstinence website

Louisiana is rejecting a complaint by the American Civil Liberties Union that the state's website promoting premarital, sexual abstinence violates the Constitution because of its religious references.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco insisted the program complies with a federal settlement two years ago that allowed faith-based viewpoints in public discussion, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

In the settlement, a federal judge ruled some aspects of Louisiana's abstinence program unconstitutionally promoted religion and ordered the state to stop using taxpayer dollars to "convey religious messages or otherwise advance religion in any way," the New Orleans paper said.

Defending the website, Blanco's executive counsel, Terry Ryder, contended in a letter to the ACLU state branch that some of the specific complaints about experts invoking God were written by high school students discussing their faith.

Ryder said the website forum "ensures that young people can exercise their right to free speech on the subject of abstinence."

"I hope that the ACLU would agree that among the many voices in this debate are those whose deep faith in God prompts them to discuss this issue from a biblical perspective," Blanco said. "This is a perspective that I and most Louisiana citizens strongly share."

But Louise Melling of the ACLU in New York asserted, "The Governor's Program on Abstinence is not supposed to in any way include religious messages."

The ACLU says it likely will take the issue back to U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous.

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