For Immediate Release Contact:Patrick Malone
3/15/2011 [email protected]
(202) 265-2405
Will Transfer Funds to Comprehensive Sex Education, Eliminate Failed Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Program
Washington, DC– Today, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D) and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced the Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act. The bill would transfer funds from the harmful Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program, which has funneled over half a billion dollars to the states over the past fifteen years, to the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) program, a funding source for sexuality education.
“It is the right moment for our country to pass theRepealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act, and we are grateful to Senator Lautenberg and representative Lee for their leadership on this issue,”said Monica Rodriguez, president and CEO of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.“The focus of government this year needs to be on increasing the health and well-being of our nation’s young people by smartly investing in health education programs that work and eliminating wasteful programs that don’t serve any purpose but to line the pockets of special interests. Eliminating the failed and ineffective Title V abstinence-only programs so we can concentrate on bringing real, comprehensive sexuality education to young people is a good step in achieving these goals.”
The Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage state-grant program originally expired at the end of June 2009, and, at the time, had been rejected by nearly half the states because of the ineffective and restrictive nature of the program. This ideologically driven program was resurrected in 2010’s health care reform legislation despiteclear evidence that federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are not effective in stopping or even delaying adolescent sex. A 10-year government study of the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program, released during the previous Administration, found that such programs did not delay sexual initiation—the entire supposed purpose of the programs.
If the Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Actbecomes law, it will transfer all of the funds from the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program to PREP. PREP funds programs that are required to provide information on both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, with a substantial emphasis on both abstinence and contraceptive use. Programs must also address adulthood preparation topics, such as healthy relationships, adolescent development, financial literacy, educational and career success, and healthy life skills that will prepare young people to make healthy and safe decisions. Funded programs are required to be evidence-based or replicate elements of evidence-based programs that have been proven on the basis of rigorous scientific research to change behavior. However, PREP has come under attack this year by the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives who are bent on gutting sexuality programs under the guise of deficit reduction.
“Almost before PREP has even had a chance to get off the ground, the new majority is coming after it with torches and pitchforks,” continued Rodriguez. “PREP represents the first, best hope in a generation to teach about sexuality in a truly comprehensive way. Instead of trying to dismantle PREP, Congress should be bolstering it by diverting funds from failed abstinence-only programs. It makes sense on every level.”
For more information contact Patrick Malone at (202)265-2405 or [email protected].
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