Act Now: Abstinence Funding In Danger

By Chad Hills

Congress needs your encouragement to keep federal funding for character-based abstinence programs.

Congress Needs To Hear From You

If you believe that sexual abstinence until marriage is the best and healthiest message to give children, teens and young adults, then Congress needs to hear this message from you. And if you, your children or someone you know has benefited from character-based abstinence education, please tell your Congress Members and encourage them to keep federal funding for abstinence education.

Action Steps:

1. Create Your Message - What do you want to say? You can choose one or two talking points below, or browse tips when communicating with Congress and share your own concerns. Be sure that you ask your Congress Members (a) to keep abstinence funding as a separate stream (avoid comprehensive sex programs from accessing) and (b) to keep the same language that currently exists. More talking points below:
• Let's promote the highest and healthiest standard for sexuality in our children, because with our support, these young people are capable of saving sex for marriage.
• A recent study, claiming mere abstinence pledges don't work, unintentionally discovered that teens raised with conservative values, abstinence training, the support of their family and friends, combined with religious involvement, were likely to delay sex four years longer than the national average of 17 years. This has huge potential for lowering health costs and promoting stable marriages.
• The CDC recently reported that sexually transmitted infections have increased, with a significant burden among women and racial minorities.  See press release ...
• The CDC recently reported teen birth rates increased in more than half the states. See report ...
• A recent study assessing condoms and HIV/AIDS prevention found that condoms were ineffective - due to user-reporting or failure - for one-third of the sexually active women being studied. The truth is, nothing can provide risk-free sex, so we should not be giving our kids false information and permission to have "safe sex" with condoms. The safe-sex message is not only risky, it's irresponsible. There is no such thing as sex without consequences.  Read more ...
• Encouraging abstinence until marriage is the only 100-percent effective way to prevent the spread of devastating STIs and unplanned pregnancies - aiming for less, intentionally sends future generations down a course with much pain, harm and millions in federal health costs. Abstinence until marriage needs to be encouraged as normative behavior, while sex outside of marriage should be deemed irresponsible - not acceptable - behavior.
• Share your own concerns.
2. Send Your Message - calls are most effective, while e-mails and faxes are also good forms of communication. Conventional mail, due to increased security, can take up to several weeks. It's been difficult to communicate with Washington, D.C. offices, so we are currently recommending communication with congress leaders' state offices.
• Find your congressional leaders by visiting the CitizenLink.com Action Center .
• Find Congress Members' contact information.
• Call, e-mail or fax your message urging them to keep federal funding for abstinence education (Note: state offices may be more accessible than D.C. offices).

Thanks!  Your voice counts.

National Abstinence Clearinghouse

• 605-335-3643
• info@abstinence.net

If you enjoy reading stories like this one, sign up for the free CitizenLink Daily Update e-mail. You'll get news and commentary from Focus on the Family Action delivered right to your computer.