Dec 01 2007
Researchers ask for reduced funding of abstinence education
Ten public health researchers have asked Congress to reduce funding for abstinence education, according to The Washington Times.
“We want to see that the best programs are used” and that “they’re based on science,” said Dr. Santelli, a department chairman at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
The letter warned that the programs withhold “potentially life-saving information” about birth control and ignore the health needs of homosexual, bisexual and transgender youth.
According to the article, the federal government spends about $213 million in abstinence education. The Democrat-led Congress added $28 million to the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program in the 2008 funding bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments.
President Bush recently vetoed the $606 billion bill because it had too much in discretionary spending. The House failed to override the veto and lawmakers are reworking the bill.
You can view a related post about recent studies examining the effectiveness of abstinence-only sex education.
[…] Read the rest of this great post here […]