Mar 13th, 2009
Posted by Vania Leveille, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:46pm	Reproductive Freedom

End Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Funding

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

This week, President Obama signed into law the omnibus appropriations bill that will fund government operations for the rest of fiscal year 2009. Buried in the spending measure and the media blizzard about earmarks is $99 million for the Community Based Abstinence Education program.

Sure, we're glad the program received a $14 million cut — the first ever — but it absolutely boggles the mind that this program still receives any funding at all. In fact, $162 million remains in the budget for abstinence-only-until-marriage funding. Did you catch that? $162 million. Enough already.

For more than a decade, Congress has spent more than a billion taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs despite busloads of evidence that they don't work and pleas from the scientific and public health community to stop, stop, stop!

We know that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs censor information that can help young people make responsible, healthy, and safe decisions about relationships and sexual activity. We know they reinforce gender stereotypes, marginalize LGBT youth, and provide inaccurate and misleading information. And yet, the money keeps flowing.

Enough already. Seriously. Enough. It's time to put scientific integrity and the real needs of teenagers ahead of narrow, ideological agendas.

So even though we took a good, albeit shamefully small, step in the right direction, we'll take a big leap forward if President Obama allocates zero dollars for abstinence-only programs in his 2010 fiscal year budget recommendation to Congress expected in April 2009. And the ACLU has asked him to do that. We've pointed out to President Obama that continuing to fund abstinence-only programs is inconsistent with statements he's made during the campaign and in the early weeks of his presidency.

Now President Obama needs to hear from you. We may lose tremendous momentum in the fight against abstinence-only programs if President Obama's 2010 fiscal year budget includes funds for these programs. Your voice will make a difference! Send President Obama an email today asking him to defund abstinence-only programs. Tell your family, friends, neighbors, teenagers to email too. We need to let President Obama know that it's enough already.

Permalink |	Reproductive Freedom

1. Bruce Campbell Says:
   Mar 13th, 2009 at 7:45pm

   I just emailed my letter. Now to send links to everyone I know. This is really important.

2. Paen Says:
   Mar 14th, 2009 at 1:28pm

   I bet they would brung the abortion rate way down if they just spent a small
   part of that 162 million on free condoms.

3. Quidpro Says:
   Mar 15th, 2009 at 7:06am

   If, as the ACLU believes, providing comprehensive sex education to children will lead to fewer unwanted pregnancies, then would not comprehensive fire-arm education to children result in fewer accidental gun deaths? Just as the ACLU has lead the charge on sex education, so it should lead the charge on gun education.

4. Paen Says:
   Mar 16th, 2009 at 1:51pm

   That's a great idea Quidpro and we could also hand out live hand grenades to preschoolers.

5. Quidpro Says:
   Mar 18th, 2009 at 2:30pm

   Thank you for confirming directly the point I made ironicly, Paen.

6. busdriversteve Says:
   Mar 31st, 2009 at 4:16pm

   Abstinence works EVERY time it's tried! But we need to keep teen girls pregnant to keep the pro abortion folks in business. It's all about money, even on the left!

7. ICAH Says:
   Jun 12th, 2009 at 12:11pm

   The best idea proposed so far has been the REAL Act. Of course abstinence is the best, and only 100% way, to prevent unwanted pregnancy or STIs, but numbers show teens are going to be having sex, and so we need to give them the right information to be able to make intelligent, informed decisions. Read into it and other reproductive rights causes at our website, icah.org, or our blog (written by youth) at https://www.google.com/a/icah.org/ServiceLogin?

8. ICAH Says:
   Jun 12th, 2009 at 12:12pm

   *Our blog at http://youthactivistnetwork.blogspot.com/, sorry, wrong paste!

9. man of Truth Says:
   Dec 8th, 2009 at 5:42pm

   Sorry to bust your bubble, but I teach abstinence until marriage and unfortunately most of if not all of what you say in your narrative is a lie. "We know that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs censor information that can help young people make responsible, healthy, and safe decisions about relationships and sexual activity. We know they reinforce gender stereotypes, marginalize LGBT youth, and provide inaccurate and misleading information". Just to let you and others who believe like you know...We make awesome gains and we dont use the word God, Jesus or the Bible...we belive that teens are smart enough to recognize your lies and our truth. They can now make a choice. This I promise you, I will fight until the day I die to let youth, teens, and young adults know the truth of what YOU lie about. have a blessed day! ManofTruth