Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Examines Pa.'s Decision To Refuse Title V Abstinence-Only Education Funds

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 10 Jul 2008 - 6:00 PST

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wednesday examined the decision by Pennsylvania officials to refuse more than $5.8 million in federal Title V abstinence-only education funding since 2003. Pennsylvania is one of many states that are refusing Title V funds.

According to the Post-Gazette, Title V-funded programs preclude teachers from mentioning birth control or condoms, except to point out that they fail. Teachers must instruct that "anything but abstinence has psychological, social and physical harm," as well as that heterosexual marriage "is the standard," the Post-Gazette reports. Seventeen states have explicitly laid out their reasons for refusing Title V money, but Pennsylvania has not, perhaps to avoid "offending its more conservative constituents," the Post-Gazette reports.

Pennsylvania's approach "favors local control of programs, supporting the philosophy that teachers on the ground know the specific issues their students and neighborhoods are up against," according to the Post-Gazette. Schools in the state choose curricula and how they are taught, usually picking variations on comprehensive sexual education that often cover contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections while stressing abstinence, the Post-Gazette reports.

Joe Fay, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, criticized the federal government's Title V program for continuing to spend money on abstinence-only programs that have proven to be ineffective. "It's almost unheard of for a state to turn down money, but that's a sign of how unpopular these measures are," Fay said. Phyllis Welborn of the state Department of Health's Bureau of Family Health noted that evaluations by the health department showed that abstinence-only programs are "largely ineffective in reducing sexual onset" and in promoting attitudes and skills that translate into with sexual abstinence.

Brenda Newport -- executive director of the Women's Care Center in Erie, Pa., which teaches abstinence-only education -- questioned why the state would turn down millions of dollars in funding when the state's pregnancy rate was 40.7 pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers ages 15 to 19 in 2005. "There isn't a contraceptive that is foolproof," Newport said, adding, "Abstinence-only helps teenagers with life skills: self-control and managing peer pressure" (Chu, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/9).

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