Congress Extends Life of Near-Death Abstinence Program
WASHINGTON – The federally-funded abstinence program, which Democrats had vowed to let expire on June 30, benefited from a sudden change of heart in Congress when a unanimous vote revived the program for another three months.
Supporters of the Title V Abstinence Education, however, are still apprehensive about the future of the program – commenting that they are unsure about its sustainability beyond the three months.
"The battle is far from over. We have no promises beyond three months," said Valerie Huber, National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) executive director, according to the Baptist Press. "We've got a lot of work to do" to keep abstinence education funding beyond the current fiscal year, she noted.
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Although Congress agreed to extend the program, they have not worked out funding details for the program's extension through Sept. 30 before leaving for their Fourth of July recess. The U.S. Senate and House said they will work on the program's specific funding when they return to Washington July 9.
In May, Democratic leaders announced that they would kill the $50 million abstinence-only program, asserting that new studies show the program's failure to prevent students from sustaining from sex.
Congressmen against Title V had used as evidence a new report by the research firm Mathematica Policy Research which claimed that students in the abstinence-only program had similar numbers of sexual partners and began having sex at the same mean age as those not in the program.
However, critics of the report pointed out that the research was based on a narrow and bias group of abstinence education programs.
The Mathematica report only examined four abstinence education programs out of more than 900 available, pointed out S. Michael Craven, founding director of the Center for Christ & Culture. Moreover, out of the four programs studied, one was voluntary and took place after school. In addition, the students in the abstinence programs were aged 9-11 and were not evaluated until four to six years later.
"The fact is, the targeted children were too young to absorb the abstinence message, and there was no continuation education into the High School years when adolescents are more likely to engage in sexual activity," rebutted Craven in a column featured in The Christian Post.
Christian public policy groups such as Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women for America have all denounced Congress's intention to pull the plug on the abstinence-only program.
Craven and FRC president Tony Perkins both pointed to a recent conference sponsored by Health and Human Services (HHS) which presented evidence from over 20 studies that abstinence programs are resulting in positive outcomes in youth.
In addition, 80 percent of parents who were informed what abstinence education teaches responded they prefer abstinence education over comprehensive sex education in public schools, according to a recent Zogby poll.
"Given the values espoused under abstinence education versus the 'no values' approach of 'comprehensive' sex education, which approach should we employ if the stated goal of both sides is to 'reduce adolescent sexual activity and its consequence?'" questioned Craven at the end of his column.
Forty-three states have received funding through Title V, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
National Abstinence Education Association director Huber urges abstinence program supporters to contact their representatives this week while they're in their home state to press the importance of continuing abstinence education funding.
