A New York Times op-ed columnist is arguing that abstinence-only sex education funding, which was recently expanded in a “bipartisan compromise,” could be better used to pay for children’s health insurance.

DEMOCRATIC leaders are right to contest President Bush’s veto of their bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance program. But sadly, their “bipartisan compromise” will leave millions of young Americans vulnerable to sickness and suffering of the most preventable kind.

To entice Republicans to support the bill, the House of Representatives agreed to increase money for abstinence-only sex education by $28 million, to a total of about $200 million a year…By dropping the financing for abstinence-only sex ed, Congress could save enough money to insure 150,000 children a year. And it would also demonstrate much needed resolve to protect all aspects of children’s health.

The Kaiser Network provides additional background and coverage of this topic.

The House in July voted 276-140 to approve a $152 billion fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (HR 3043), which includes a $28 million increase from $113 million for HHS’ Community-Based Abstinence Education Program.
CBAE gives grants to groups that teach abstinence but not how to use contraception (Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, 10/15).

I wrote a related post last week about the persistence of abstinence-only sex education funding despite the Democrats’ control of Congress.

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