Abstinence Ed Funding Extension Uncertain
- Jul 9, 2007 - comment
An abstinence education federal grant program officially expired June 30, but an extension authorized by the Senate and consent pending in the House could keep the program alive for three more months.
Just prior to breaking for a week-long Independence Day recess, the Senate passed by unanimous consent a 95-day extension of Title V, one of three federally-funded abstinence education programs. The House leadership has agreed to consider the measure as Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week, a move that could keep it running through fiscal year 2007. Provisions within the measure would also ensure Title V is funded retroactively to cover the period between the June 30 expiration and the reauthorization date.
If you believe abstinence education programs offer an important message for our young people, tell your congressman to support the three-month extension of Title V and tell your congressman and senators to support full reauthorization of Title V.
A three-month extension of Title V is the most important next step, but Congress should then ensure its full reauthorization.
Title V provides $50 million in grants annually to states on a formula basis to teach students the benefits of abstinence until marriage and that abstinence outside marriage is the expected norm for school-age children. In 2007, 43 states participated in Title V, matching $3 for every $4 received in grants.
Failure to reauthorize Title V would mean not only the end of the program but also the cessation of a set of “A-H” definitions (see below) that provides clear teaching requirements for each of the three abstinence education programs. These definitions would likely be replaced with weaker guidelines for the remaining two programs, Community Abstinence-Based Education and the Adolescent Family Life Demonstration and Research Program, better known as Title XX.
Abstinence programs provide a crucial message needed to counter the misinformation of comprehensive sex education, which often minimizes the abstinence component and emphasizes condom use and so-called “safe-sex.”
Despite opponents’ arguments against abstinence education, several studies demonstrate that the programs are favored over comprehensive sex education by a majority of Americans. A survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, for example, reveals that 91 percent of teens aged 12-19 and 93 percent of adults believe teens should be given a strong message on remaining abstinent until at least graduation from high school. Further, nearly 79 percent of parents responded in a Zogby International poll that “being sexually abstinent is best for [their] child’s health and future.”
Still, Congress lopsidedly funds comprehensive sex education over abstinence programs, providing roughly $12 for contraception promotion for every $1 channeled for abstinence education.
If you believe abstinence education programs offer an important message for our young people, tell your congressman to support the three-month extension of Title V and tell your congressman and senators to support full reauthorization of Title V.
The “A-H definition” specifies that an abstinence education program funded under the block grant must:
A. Have as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
B. Teach abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children;
C. Teach that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
D. Teach that a mutually faithful, monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity;
E. Teach that sexual activity outside the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
F. Teach that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society;
G. Teach young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
H. Teach the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.
Further Learning
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