Abstinence Only…What Now?

I guess we could say that we let down our guard.

April 2007 brought us the long awaited Mathematica study which put a federal stamp on what we already knew: Abstinence only education does not work to change young people’s behavior. In the wake of that study, Democrats promised to pull the plug on abstinence only funding. Hooray! Finally, we thought, they get it! Not so fast. Although they did pull the funding for abstinence only under Title V, they increased the funding for Community Based Abstinence Education, (CBAE) which falls under a bill known as Labor-H.

How did this happen? Both of these programs share the same curriculum guidelines. If Title V is a waste of money, so is CBAE. Nonetheless, CBAE will get $141 million, up from $109 million in 2007.

Regarding the curriculum, federally funded abstinence programs must teach the “the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity"-regardless of whether those gains are real. Programs must also teach that “that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects”. CBAE grantees do not have the option of leaving out a core tenet if they don’t find enough evidence to support it. All eight of the core tenets must be taught and cannot be combined with any other curriculum.

So what now? The bottom line is that CBAE has been funded and those funds are difficult for states to resist. Nonetheless, ten states have resisted and turned away funding for programs that are proven to be harmful to the physical well being of our youth. We need more states to follow suit and take a stand against a policy that is putting our youth in harm’s way.

What can you do to speak out against abstinence only education? First and foremost, if you are from one of the ten states that have rejected abstinence only funding (CA, CT, OH, ME, MA, MT, NJ, RI, WA, WI), contact your Governor and thank him or her for taking a stand against this form of educational blackmail. If your state does accept this funding, contact your Governor directly and tell him or her to reject these funds based on the evidence that these programs are ineffective and harmful. Your voice makes a difference. Although Congress has disappointed us by supporting and funding this program, we can still make a difference by encouraging each individual state to reject it.