House Committee Debates Continued Funding For Abstinence-Only Education

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 25 Apr 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday debated the effectiveness of abstinence-only education, as well as if the federal government should continue funding such programs, the Los Angeles Times reports. The federal government has provided more than $1.3 billion in funding for abstinence-only education since it began funding the programs in 1996. According to the Times, 49 of 50 states initially signed up for such programs, but currently only 33 states currently receive federal funding for abstinence-only education (Wire, Los Angeles Times, 4/24).

Opponents of continued funding argued that the programs lack scientific evidence that they are effective, while supporters of the programs said that they should be improved rather than dropped. Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, "There is a broad consensus that the benefits of abstinence should be taught as part of any sex education effort." He added, "But abstinence-only programs teach only abstinence. In federally funded abstinence-only programs, teenagers cannot receive information on other methods of disease prevention and contraception, other than failure rates." Waxman noted a federally funded study that examined four abstinence-only programs and found that the programs had no impact on the age at which teenagers first had sex, their number of sexual partners, and rates of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. He also noted that his 2004 analysis of federally funded abstinence-only programs found that many curricula used "false or misleading medical information."

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), the ranking member on the committee, said that "it is inaccurate and unfair to claim all abstinence education programs are the same or that all such programs fail, therefore none should be funded." Davis added that "identifying what works and what doesn't can help focus federal funding on the best practices and the most efficient programs" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 4/23).

Officials from the American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine testified that scientific studies have not found that abstinence-only programs work to reduce unplanned pregnancies, STIs or the age at which sexual activity begins, Reuters reports. The American Psychological Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also issued statements to the committee criticizing abstinence-only programs. Margaret Blythe of the American Academy of Pediatrics at the hearing said that "there is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information"; however, "[v]ast sums of federal monies continue to be directed toward these programs." Comprehensive sex education programs should emphasize abstinence, but "abstinence should not be the only strategy that is discussed," Blythe said (Dunham, Reuters, 4/23).

According to the Washington Times, some Republicans on the committee complained that the hearing was "lopsided." However, the three witnesses called to defend abstinence-only education -- Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Charles Keckler of HHS and researcher Stan Weed -- were supported by "friendly comments and questions" from many Republican members on the panel who "made a point of staying at the hearing," the Times reports (Wetzstein, Washington Times, 4/24). "Emerging evidence supports the notion that abstinence-centered strategies, if well-designed and properly implemented, can significantly and substantially reduce teen sexual initiation for periods of one to two years," Weed said.

Although opinions on funding for abstinence-only programs split along party lines, there was bipartisan agreement that lawmakers face "shocking" statistics recently released by CDC, which found that about 25% of U.S. girls and young women ages 14 to 19 have at least one of four common STIs, CQ HealthBeat reports (CQ HealthBeat, 4/23). At the end of the hearing, Waxman suggested that the federal government create a block grant for sex education funding that allows states flexibility on which type of programs to implement (Washington Times, 4/24).

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