May 13, 2008
States are Backing Away from Abstinence-Only Programs and are Looking for Alternatives
Health and government officials are working to end abstinence-only programs and seeking to expand other types of sexual education initiatives in the face of mounting evidence the programs do not work, according to a Medical News and Perspectives article in the May 7, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Many states now refuse to take funding for the programs because of restrictions that come with the money, according to the article. “By 2005, there were more than 800 programs funded with over $1.5 billion,” said John Santelli of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, “and increasingly professionals, parents, policy makers, and adolescents have been raising concerns.” The concerns have led to pressure to revamp sex education programs, he said. Abstinence only--the requirement that schools teach that abstinence from sex is the only way to avoid pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections and other health problems--began in 1982 and became a major factor in sex education in 1996, part of the conservative movement’s social issues program. President Bush’s 2009 budget, which cuts funding for HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention functions, allocates $204 million to abstinence-only initiatives. Much of the money goes to the Community-Based Abstinence Education Program aimed at adolescents. Recipients must agree not to take other funding--even non-federal--for more extensive programs. Multiple studies, particularly one by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., a non-partisan group, concluded the programs have “no measurable impact on initiation rates, ages of first intercourse, or numbers of partners, no impact on pregnancies, births or STDs.” A 2004 Congressional review also charged the programs were replete with scientific inaccuracies. Seventeen states now have declined to apply for the funds, and more than 20 insist on greater scientific rigor in the programs they do employ. The JAMA article may be found by subscribers at http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/299/17/2013. The Mathematica study mentioned in the article is at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/abstinence07/report.pdf.
