Congress Re-Ups Abstinence-Ed Program
File under "Your Tax Dollars at Work": Congress has once again approved a three-month extension of a $50-million nationwide abstinence-education program, a move detractors say ignores indications that the approach (shock!) may not be working for America's teens.
File under “Your Tax Dollars at Work”: Congress has once again approved a three-month extension of a $50-million nationwide abstinence-education program, a move detractors say ignores indications that the approach (shock!) may not be working for America’s teens.
Rooted in Truth.The Washington Times:
Rep. James P. Moran, Virginia Democrat, said he supported “with frustration” the second three-month extension of the $50 million Title V abstinence-education program and several health programs that serve low-income families.
The health programs are effective, but unfortunately they are “held hostage” to the abstinence program, “which prizes ideology over science and … harms our children through the provision of medically inaccurate information,” Mr. Moran said Wednesday. The Senate passed its extension of Title V and other health programs on Thursday.
Abstinence supporters have been playing defense, especially since April when Mathematica Policy Research Inc. released a long-awaited evaluation of four abstinence programs. It concluded that the programs didn’t affect teen sexual behavior.
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists the Heritage Keepers Abstinence Education, a pro-abstinence program aimed at middle and high schoolers, as one of almost three dozen "evidenced-based" sex education programs that qualify as effective in preventing teenage pregnancy.
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