ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE)

History: In the fall of 1999, Congress allocated $20 million in advance funding for FY 2001 and $30 million in advance funding for FY 2002 for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs through the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant's SPRANS program (Special Projects of Regional and National Significance). This program allowed community-based organizations that followed a strict adherence to the 8-point restrictive definition of "abstinence education" as defined under Section 510 of the Social Security Act to apply for grant money directly from the Department of Health and Human Services. At the time, grantees of these SPRANS program had stricter guidelines than the Title V welfare reform abstinence-only state grantees. SPRANS grantees had to adhere to all eight points of the welfare reform definition of abstinence.

On July 6, 2001, the first year funds were available, the Department of Health and Human Services distributed $17.1 million to 49 communities to implement abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for young people from ages 12-18. HHS later distributed another four grants totaling $758,070 to organizations in California, Texas, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Two of the grants were three-year implementation grants and two were one-year planning grants. Each year, President Bush has asked Congress for an increase in funding for this program. Currently, the program receives $113 million annually.

In FY 2005, the SPRANS abstinence-only program was shifted from Human Resource Services Agency (HRSA) to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the program was renamed Community Based Abstinence Education (CBAE). Like the welfare reform abstinence program the funding for CBAE is also tied to an extremely narrow, morality-based definition of abstinence-only education that puts teens at risk. The eight-point definition first formulated under the 1996 welfare law condemns all sexual activity outside of marriage, for people of any age.

Under the guidelines from HHS, all grantees of the abstinence-only funding must follow the eight-point definition and cannot promote contraceptives or condoms.

Under the law, an "abstinence education" program means an educational program which:

1. Has as its exclusive purpose, teaching the social, physiological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
2. Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage as the expected standard for all school age children;
3. Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other associated health problems;
4. Teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
5. Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
6. Teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;
7. Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
8. Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.