Abstinence-only Sex Education
In 2006 Washington State received $2,499,202 in federal funding for abstinence-only education. Click here for a fact sheet with further information.
Sex education programs discussing both abstinence and contraception have been proven to increase knowledge, delay the onset of sex, reduce the frequency of sex, and increase contraceptive use. But ideology, not science, has been driving America’s response to the devastating problem of teen pregnancy and STD/HIV infection. Funding for restrictive abstinence-only education is dramatically increasing. Bush would rather proselytize his religiously based anti-condom anti-choice beliefs than fully inform America's future generations about the dangers and consequences of irresponsible sexual behavior.
The Facts
- 31% of girls were not protected the last time they had sex.
- One-third of teens using contraception use it inconsistently.
- The U.S. still leads the industrialized world in teen pregnancy and birth rates. Despite the recently declining rates, 34% of teenage girls get pregnant at least once before they reach age 20, resulting in 820,000 teen pregnancies a year.
- In 2004, 99 percent of Americans believed it was appropriate for young people to have information about STDs, and 94 percent of Americans thought it was appropriate to teach young people about birth control.
- Seven in 10 Americans oppose the use of federal funds to promote abstinence-only programs that prohibit teaching about condoms and contraception.
- In 2002, more than 6,200 STDs were reported among young people in Washington 10 to 19 years old. AIDS was the 12th leading cause of death for the same age group. In 2000, Washington state had 15,630 pregnant teens aged 15 to 19.
- Washington law requires schools to provide some HIV/AIDS education, including abstinence, but does not require comprehensive sexuality education.
- Washington law requires schools to provide some HIV/AIDS education, including abstinence, but does not require comprehensive sexuality education.
Abstinence-only Education
- Presidentially-endorsed abstinence-only programs stress abstinence until marriage while failing to provide complete information about contraception and STD/HIV prevention. Abstinence-only programs have received over half a billion dollars in federal funds since 1997, and the Bush Administration requested an unprecedented $273 million in funding for FY’05. Yet no federal program exists for comprehensive, honest, sex education that teaches young people about both abstinence and contraception.
- Since 2000, Bush has appointed at least five known abstinence-only proponents to key government posts, including Dr. Joe McIlhaney to the Advisory Committee to the Center for Disease Control.
- Research by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in 2004 shows: “To date, six studies of abstinence-only programs have been published. None of these studies has found consistent and significant program effects on delaying the onset of intercourse, and at least one study provided strong evidence that the program did not delay the onset of intercourse.”
- The recent Waxman Report has documented that abstinence program materials contain false and misleading information.
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