Bush Seeks Funds for Abstinence Education

Congress recently included more than $131 million for abstinence programs as part of the $388 billion spending bill. That amount is an increase of $30 million but is about $100 million less than President Bush requested. Concurrently, a national evaluation of abstinence programs has been delayed until 2006. Ten state evaluations, compiled by Advocates for Youth -- a group that opposes abstinence-only education -- found minimal change in teens' behavior since abstinence programs began in 1997.

The sexual education debate has raged for years between those who say that teaching about sex promotes promiscuity and those who argue that teens will make better choices if they have more information. Because abstinence-only programs only came about recently, as part of the 1996 welfare law, there is little conclusive research about their effectiveness. In 2002, independent researchers concluded there is no reliable evidence as to whether they are effective in reducing teen sex, pregnancy or STD transmission. That same team has been updating its findings for the Department of Health and Human Services, but its findings are not expected until 2006.

Withholding information about contraception means that teens will be less able to prevent STDs and pregnancy, supporters of comprehensive sexual education say. "The only 100 percent way to avoid a car collision is not to drive, but the federal government sure does a lot of advocacy for safety belts," said Advocates for Youth President James Wagoner.

"We don't need a study, if I remember my biology correctly, to show us that those people who are sexually abstinent have a zero chance of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant or contracting [an STD]," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary of HHS in charge of federal abstinence funding. Nevertheless, said Horn, "The research is not as adequate as it needs to be." But abstinence education is clearly "something that parents and children want," he said.

Back to other news for November 30, 2004