THURSDAY, April 25, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- State programs that push abstinence as the only message for teen sex education won approval from a key House panel yesterday.
After a debate in which the programs faced sharp criticism and equally passionate support, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted 35-17 to extend their funding through 2007.
The plan is to provide an additional $50 million a year to states for the programs, which are rooted in the notion that the best way to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy is to urge youths to refrain from sex until marriage.
The grants have been in the budget since the 1996 welfare overhaul. But critics of abstinence-only measures say they're ineffective and ignore the reality that many teens will be sexually active, regardless of what they hear from parents, teachers or the government.
President Bush, an advocate of delaying sex until marriage, has proposed $138 million in federal funding for abstinence education programs next year. That figure includes the $50 million state grants and another $88 million for community-based initiatives. Yesterday's debate focused only on the state funding.
Yet as the spirited discussion over the House vote suggests, whether those dollars are well spent is far from clear.
U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) testified Wednesday that many abstinence-only groups "are trying to use terror tactics to keep teens from having sex." Capps offered an unsuccessful amendment to the funding bill that would have required abstinence programs receiving federal money to be scientifically sound.
Forty percent of American girls become pregnant at least once by their 20th birthday. The nation's teen pregnancy rate has been dropping in recent decades, but why that's the case is a matter of considerable dispute.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced interim results of a new report on abstinence education programs. That report, by Mathematical Policy Research, found these programs are "changing the local landscape of approaches to teenage pregnancy and youth risk avoidance." However, it found no good evidence for whether these efforts in fact reduce teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Still, the Bush Administration praised the findings.
"These abstinence programs are helping to create strong, well-rounded individuals," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said in a statement. "These programs offer a more comprehensive message than just saying no to early sexual activity. They are helping young people with larger issues such as healthy relationships, self-esteem, life planning, good decision-making and effective communications. These are some of the real skills that underlie successful development and growth in every area of a young person's life."
However, Peter S. Bearman, a Columbia University sociologist who has studied the effectiveness of chastity "pledges," said abstinence programs are only one element of an effective approach to molding teen sexual and romantic behavior.
"To reach and help all adolescents, full comprehensive sex and health education programs will help adolescents gain the information that they need to protect themselves," Bearman said.
Some experts argue the decline in teen pregnancies has little to do with abstinence education. Rather, it reflects changing sex practices and greater use by adolescents of highly effective and long-acting contraceptives like the pill. A strong economy in the 1990s and the frightening specter of HIV and AIDS may also have played a role in the trend.
"Kids are beginning to hear the message, 'We don't want you to get pregnant,"' said Bronwyn Mayden, executive director of Campaign for Our Children. The Baltimore-based group promotes abstinence, as well as education about birth control, family planning and safe sex habits.
On the other hand, while kids may be having less and safer intercourse now than they used to, Mayden's group has found oral sex appears to be gaining popularity among adolescents and even younger children. Anecdotal evidence from health workers shows a rising number of children being treated for sex-related infections in the throat, Mayden said. And a survey last year showed that 65 percent of children ages 9 to 14 don't believe oral sex is truly sex.
Tamara Kreinin, president and chief executive officer of Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S., said the "jury's still out" on the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs. However, dozens of studies have shown that programs offering information about abstinence and contraception don't increase teen sexual activity, and may even delay it.
"Unfortunately, kids are hearing that condoms don't work" from some abstinence educators, Kreinin said. "Their response is not to stop having sex, but to simply stop using condoms."
Capps cited one abstinence program whose curriculum told students that they would need to clean themselves with a disinfectant after having sex with a condom.
"Our children are not foolish or stupid," she said. "It's simply more effective to tell them the truth."
What To Do
To find out more about teen pregnancy and how to prevent it, try the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy or the Campaign for Our Children.
For more on sexual health, try the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S..
