ABSTINENCE-ONLY FUNDING

The U.S. government has invested more than $1.5 billion in abstinence-only sex education programs for American students in the past two decades, and is spending $170 million more every year.

But study after study finds that the programs don’t work – in fact, they can actually cause harm by spreading erroneous information.

• The U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate among developed nations, and the trend is upward.
  
  
• Teen rates of  HIV and other sexually transmitted infections are rising: about 20,000 are newly infected every year. 
  
  
• Nearly half of all teenagers are sexually active before graduating from high school, in America and around the world.
  
  
• Abstinence-only education discourages sexually active teens from using contraception and leaves them ignorant about how to protect against pregnancy and disease. 
  
  
• Comprehensive sex education programs that are effective at delaying sexual initiation, reducing teen pregnancy and STDs rates have been underemphasized or ignored throughout the Bush administration.
  

Adolescent health experts have implored Congress to end funding for these dangerous abstinence-only education programs.

• American Academy of Pediatrics congressional testimony (April 2008): five systematic reviews have found no effect on adolescent sexual behaviors, including a government-funded evaluation by an independent research organization. The programs are “not only ineffective but may cause harm” by leading to “failure to use safer sex practices once intercourse is initiated.” Quoted from here
  
  
• The Society for Adolescent Medicine: Abstinence-only programs show “little evidence of efficacy in delaying initiation of sexual intercourse” and are “ethically problematic…inherently coercive and often providing misinformation and withholding information needed to make informed choices.” Quoted from here

• Advocates for Youth: "Research continues to show that comprehensive sex education which teaches both abstinence and contraception is most effective for young people.” Quoted from here
  
  
• The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS): Abstinence-only programs “use taxpayer money to promote religions and instill fear, shame and guilt in young people.” Quoted from here
  

One after another, state governments are rejecting federal funding for abstinence-only education on grounds the program is counter-productive.

• State participation is down 49 percent over the past two years. Only 26 states remain in the program. The most recent departures were Arizona and Iowa, which left the program Oct. 1.

Organizations Opposing Abstinence-Until Marriage Programs: 

• Advocates for Youth
  
  
• Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)

Organization Leading Abstinence-Until-Marriage Movement: 

•  The National Abstinence Clearinghouse

Videos of the Defenders of Comprehensive Sex-Ed