President Bush’s 2009 budget proposal includes $204 million to support Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE), but dozens of liberals in Congress want all abstinence money axed from the budget.
Seventy-six representatives — all abortion supporters — have signed a letter sponsored by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., asking the House Appropriations Committee to cut all abstinence-education funding. The letter follows another letter, sent by Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., urging support for CBAE funding and current guidelines.
The debate surfaces on the heels of a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that shows one in four teen girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
“With 3 million teen girls infected with STIs, safer sex in adolescents does not exist,” said Linda Klepacki, sexual health analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “For the current and future health of teens, we must teach them how to have strong relationships not based on sex.”
The American Journal of Health Behavior published a study in January showing that students who receive abstinence education are 50 percent less likely to initiate sex. Furthermore, last year’s report by the federal Department of Health and Human Services showed that some comprehensive sex-education curricula taught in the nation's schools essentially have no impact on behavior.
Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said it is important to look at the growing body of research showing abstinence education as the only curriculum that successfully addresses teen pregnancies, STIs and the emotional consequences of teen sex.
“Abstinence education is so much more than a ‘Just Say No' approach,” she said. “It is time that society puts public health in front of ideological agendas and recognizes that abstinence education is the best health message for America's youth."
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Abstinence education also is coming up in the Senate. Ask your senators to support CBAE. You can find contact information through our Action Center.
