Abstinence program aid rescued in bill
WASHINGTON – A little-noticed provision of the health legislation has rescued federal support for a controversial form of sex education: teaching youths to remain virgins until marriage.
The legislation restores $250 million over five years for states to sponsor programs aimed at preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by focusing exclusively on encouraging children and adolescents to avoid sex. The funding provides at least a partial reprieve for the approach, which faced losing all federal support under President Barack Obama's first two budgets.
"We're very happy to see that funding will continue so the important sexual health message of risk avoidance will reach American teens," said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, a Washington-based lobbying group. "What better place to see such an important health issue addressed than in the health legislation?"
But the funding was condemned by critics, who were stupefied by the 11th-hour rescue.
"To spend a quarter-billion dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that have already been proven to fail is reckless and irresponsible," said James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, a Washington group. "When on top of that you add the fact that this puts the health and lives of young people at risk, this becomes outrageous."
During President George W. Bush's administration, abstinence-only programs received more than $100 million a year directly in federal funding and about $50 million each year in federal money funneled through the states. But the effort came under mounting criticism when independent evaluations concluded that the approach was ineffective and evidence began to emerge that the long decline in teen pregnancies was reversing.
As part of Obama's first budget, Congress approved a request for more than $110 million for a new "teen-age pregnancy prevention initiative" that would fund only programs that have been "proven effective through rigorous evaluation," which would effectively exclude abstinence programs.
The initiative includes $25 million for new, innovative programs that could potentially embrace those encouraging abstinence. A University of Pennsylvania researcher reported last month that a carefully designed, morally neutral abstinence-focused approach can work. But the program does not earmark funding for programs focused on maintaining virginity.
During the health legislation debate in the Senate Finance Committee, however, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, added $50 million in annual funding for five years to states for abstinence programs – a provision that survived the tumultuous process that ensued.
"There's very little good, as far as I'm concerned, to be found in this ... health care bill that raises taxes, increases the debt and slashes Medicare for a new, unaffordable entitlement," Hatch said in a statement. "Given recent studies that have proved that abstinence education is effective at reducing teen pregnancy, it's no wonder this funding was included in the bill."