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June 28, 2007 |
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ET TU, BRUTE!
Democrats continue to fund failed abstinence-only programs
WASHINGTON, DC (June 28, 2007) Yesterday, by unanimous consent, the U.S. Senate passed an extension of the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program.
There was no debate - there were no amendments - there was just a silent vote!
This action was taken despite the findings released in the 10-year evaluation conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. that “Youth in the [abstinence-only] program group were no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex and, among those who reported having had sex they had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same mean age.”
Contrary to earlier statements by House leadership that they intended to let Title V lapse, the House of Representatives is expected to pass the Senate version of the bill today.
"Young people and their parents should be outraged,” said James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth. “By continuing to fund these ineffective programs, the Democratic leadership has signaled that the health and well-being of America’s teens are not their priority.”
Since 1982, Congress has allocated over $1.5 billion for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that censor information about the health benefits of birth control and condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. The Title V program allocates $50 million a year to state health departments and the state, as part of the program, must match every $4 federal dollars with $3 state dollars.
Although teen pregnancy rates are decreasing, the United States still has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world with between 750,000 and 850,000 teen pregnancies a year. Annually, teens in the United States contract an estimated 9.1 million sexually transmitted infections and approximately 50 young people a day, an average of two young people every hour of every day, are infected with HIV.
“This is not just about the waste of taxpayer dollars,” added Wagoner, “This is also about the damage done to the young people who have been on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control.”
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Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and supports policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
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