Massachusetts: Patrick Seeks to Forgo Grant, End Classes on Sex Abstinence

Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposes forgoing a $700,000 federal abstinence grant Massachusetts has received since 1998.

Until 2003, the state used the funds for public service announcements encouraging teens to wait until marriage before having sex. The state then began spending the money on supplementary abstinence education materials. In 2005, Gov. Mitt Romney said he would channel the money directly into expanding abstinence education in schools. This move coincided with the federal government tightening the rules on how the grant could be spent, dictating an eight-point message that includes teaching that sex outside of marriage can have harmful psychological and physical effects.

With the proposed policy change, the Patrick administration joins at least six other states in refusing the money due to increasingly restrictive federal mandates about how it can be spent.

The administration pointed to a recently released federal study that found students receiving abstinence-only education are just as likely to have sex as those not in such programs. "We don't believe that the science of public health is pointing in the direction of very specific and narrowly defined behavioral approaches like the one that is mandated by this funding," said John Auerbach, state commissioner of public health.

The proposal has met resistance in the House, where Democratic leaders restored the funding in the budget plan. Lawmakers included a provision requiring schools offering abstinence programs to also provide comprehensive sex education. A Department of Public Health spokesperson said the state will not apply for the grant even if the House plan prevails.

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