President Pushing Abstinence Programs Aimed at Teenagers

The Bush administration is pushing Congress to fund abstinence programs at the same level traditional sex education and birth control programs are funded. "The administration is committed to pursuing funding parity between abstinence-only education and contraception services that go to teens," said Bobby Jindal, the assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, and the administration's point person on the new abstinence initiative.

Rather than dip into financing for traditional sex education programs, the administration hopes to increase abstinence funding to about $90 million initially, with the goal of eventually reaching the same $145 million level that Congress now plans to pay for traditional sexual education and contraception programs. The plan has generated plenty of advocates and opponents. But both sides agree that teen pregnancy rates are much too high -- the highest in the industrialized world -- and that the consequences are serious both to individuals and to society.

Dan Richey, coordinator of the Louisiana abstinence program being spearheaded by Gov. Mike Foster, said that the state would like to expand its program to include the formation of high school abstinence clubs and virginity pledges. "We feel the abstinence message is a message of hope," Richey said. "It is liberating the teenager from the culture that says you need to respond positively to peer pressure. It's counterbalancing to the whole nature of modern culture that says if it feels good do it. Those taking the abstinence pledge are looking out for their own best interests and recognizing that there really isn't any such thing as safe sex."

Julie Redman, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Louisiana, said the problem with the abstinence-only programs is that many teens will be sexually active despite admonitions to wait. "There's nothing wrong with teaching abstinence as an important way to prevent sexually transmitted disease and also teen pregnancy," Redman said. "But when there's no opportunity to give information about what has been effective for teens that are already sexually active, it is putting them at further risk."

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