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Congress ready to double spending on abstinence campaign By Joan Lowy WASHINGTON (October 18, 1999) - Congress is poised to double federal spending on programs that advocate sexual abstinence until marriage despite complaints by critics that the programs lack potentially life-saving information. The House Appropriations Committee has added an extra $50 million to next year's budget for the Department of Health and Human Service's Adolescent and Family Life program, which makes grants to states for local programs that urge teens to forgo sex until marriage. That brings total funding for the program to $68 million. A separate sexual-abstinence program with a virtually identical mission aimed at unmarried adults receives another $50 million a year in federal funds, as well as state-matching funds. Both programs require grant recipients to teach that "a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity," that "sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects," and that "abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and other associated health problems." The bill directs the department not to discuss condoms and contraception as part of the program, except to stress failure rates. The committee approved the funds without objection after conservative supporters of sexual-abstinence programs agreed to drop a separate proposal that would have required federally funded family planning clinics to notify the parents of minors who seek contraceptives. "This was another way of addressing the entire issue of teen sexuality and the problems that are cause by it," said Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who dropped his parental-notification amendment in exchange for the $50 million increase in abstinence education monies. Most traditional sex-education courses given to high school students urge sexual abstinence while also providing detailed information on how condoms and contraceptives can help prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. But sex-education programs that stress chastity and eschew contraception are becoming an increasingly important part of the public-policy agenda of the religious right. Conservatives contend that providing teens and adults with condoms and contraceptive information encourages, rather than discourages, sexual activity. "If you spend one minute talking about abstinence and 59 minutes talking about safe sex or how to use a condom, the abstinence message gets drowned out," Istook said. Critics of the abstinence education say the programs waste money because they are ineffective and, worse, they deprive sexually active teens of potentially life-saving information. "It's nuts," said Judith DeSarno, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "I don't think they (abstinence-education supporters) are living in the real world. In the real world, sexuality is part of life." An abstinence-only message is often appropriate for younger teens, DeSarno said, particularly young girls who need to be taught "obstinacy skills." But not older teens, she said. "We know from the numbers that starting about 15 and going up the majority of teens are sexually active," DeSarno said. "I think it's a moral imperative that we make certain that they know the risks and how to protect themselves." Nearly 700 new abstinence-until-marriage programs have been created in the past two years with federal funds and state matching monies. The National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., which sells abstinence-related products ranging from t-shirts to coffee mugs to school curriculum, counts more than 1,000 abstinence-education programs currently active. Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, a Republican presidential candidate, been emphasizing support for abstinence-until-marriage programs in his campaign. Abstinence-only programs of the type receiving federal money in many states have been accused of exaggerating the failure rate of contraceptives, particularly condoms, and of using fear to scare teens away from sex. An attempt in the California state assembly this year to require that sexual abstinence programs provide "medically accurate information" was fiercely opposed by conservatives. "There is no question that there is a disturbing trend toward sexuality education which denies young people the information they need to protect their health and their lives," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a national nonprofit group focused on preventing unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease. Conservatives, however, argue that abstinence is the only sure way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. They note that the percentage of teens that say they are abstinent has been rising in recent years, while the teen birth rate has been dropping. Family planners, however, say that most of the drop in the teen birth rate is due to a significant increase in teens using condoms and other forms of contraception. According to the Centers for Disease Control, teens that reported having ever had sex dropped 5.7 percent between 1991 and 1997. However, teens that said they used a condom at last sexual intercourse rose 10.6 percent during the same period. Copyright (c) 1999 Nando Media Copyright (c) 1999 Scripps Howard News Service
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