ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH

Administration to Dump More Taxpayer Money Into Unproven Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

WASHINGTON, DC (January 31, 2002)—James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth, criticized the Bush administration's proposal to increase funding by $33 million for ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs—programs that censor from young people information about contraception.

The plan would bring the total federal funding next year to $135 million for abstinence-only-until-marriage education.

" What Congress has to realize is that, by denying youth critical information about contraception and prevention in the era of AIDS, they are placing the health and lives of young people in jeopardy," said Wagoner.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has cited abstinence-only-until-marriage programs as examples of "poor fiscal and public health policy," and the nation's most trusted medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM), all support comprehensive sexuality education—an approach to sexuality education that includes both strong messages of abstinence and contraception.

Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have not been proven to have any effect on the rates of teenage pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease.

" Even Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson questions the effectiveness of abstinence-only-until marriage programs," added Wagoner. "It is time for this Administration to pull its collective head out of the sand and fund programs that work. They must put political ideology aside, stop censoring critical health information and provide young people with the tools of responsible decision-making about sex."

Advocates for Youth is a national, nonprofit organization that creates programs and advocates for policies that help young people make safe, responsible decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

###

Note to Editors and Producers: For more information or to set up an interview with adolescent sexuality experts, please contact Bill Barker at (202) 419-3420.

RETURN TO INDEX OF PRESS RELEASES >>