List of States Rejecting Abstinence-Only Funding Grows
March 12, 2008, by leciaimbery
Iowa recently became the 17th state to opt out of federal funding for abstinence-only education. In making this decision, Iowa joins a host of other states — including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming — who have rejected millions of dollars of federal funds in favor of teaching comprehensive sex education in schools.
Abstinence-only programs have never been proven effective in delaying the onset of sexual activities of young people and, in fact, often result in riskier sexual behavior by teenagers. AAUW believes that only with complete and accurate reproductive health information can young people make informed and appropriate decisions. These programs should be age appropriate and include, but not be limited to, abstinence education.
If your state is one that has rejected this funding, how has it had an impact in your state’s schools? Do you support your state’s decision? If the schools in your state teach abstinence-only education, is there a movement to get your legislators to change their position?
To take action now, urge your representative to get REAL about sex education by cosponsoring the Responsible Education About Life Act (H.R. 1653). This bill would authorize federal funds for states to offer comprehensive and medically accurate sex education in their schools. You can also read AAUW’s position paper on abstinence-only education.
A just released study from the Centers for Disease Control has found that 1 out of every 4 teenage girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted disease. An article about the research in today’s Washington Post goes on to say, “Some doctors said the numbers might be a reflection of both abstinence-only sex education and teens’ own sense of invulnerabilty.” Go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/11/AR2008031101342.html to read the article or visit http://www.cdc.gov/std/default.htm for information about STDs and prevention.
It’s logical that if you believe teens accept the instruction not to have sex, there is no need to teach them anything about stds. If they eventually have sex during marriage, they can assume their partner was a virgin and will never stray from marriage vows, so they would never need to learn the health information that was denied them in school. They will also never be able to give accurate information to their own children. The results of these misguided policies will be with us for years.
At the heart of abstinence-only sex education is a bunch of pathetic losers who are not getting any, so instead of fixing themselves so they can get some, they tell other people how wonderful it is to be a virgin so that they can make themselves feel better.
But at the end of the day, they are still miserable.