Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs: Ineffective, Unethical, and Poor Public Health (Policy Brief) (Order publication - $2.00)
The public supports a broad sex education curriculum that stresses abstinence as the best way to avoid unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but that also conveys complete and medically accurate information about contraception and condoms. Despite these strong public preferences, the federal government has invested more than $1.5 billion in state and federal dollars since 1997 into prescriptive abstinence-only and abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that are, at best, ineffective and wasteful and, at worst, misleading and dangerous to America’s youth. Learn the truth about abstinence-only education in this Policy Brief.

Adolescent Protective Behaviors: Abstinence and Contraceptive Use (The Facts) (Order publication - $1.00)
Although U.S. teens are increasingly adopting protective sexual behaviors, they face barriers to consistency in these behaviors. Advocates examines statistics from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey and other sources to better understand young people’s risk behaviors and protective behaviors.

Five Years of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Education: Assessing the Impact (Report) (available online only)
Teens in the United States continue to suffer from among the highest birth and STI in the industrialized world. Debate over the best way to help teens avoid, or reduce, their sexual risk-taking behavior has polarized many youth-serving professionals. In 1996, Congress signed into law the Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act, or "welfare reform." Attached was the provision, later set out in Section 510(b) of Title V of the Social Security Act, appropriating $250 million dollars over five years for state initiatives promoting sexual abstinence outside of marriage as the only acceptable standard of behavior for young people. From 1998 to 2003, almost a half a billion dollars in state and federal funds were appropriated to support the Title V initiative. As the first five-year funding cycle of Title V came to a close, a few state-funded evaluations became public. Others were completed with little or no fanfare. This document reviews the findings from the 10 evaluations that Advocates for Youth was able to identify. Advocates for Youth also includes evaluation results from California's earlier attempt at a statewide abstinence-only initiative.

Illinois Abstinence-Only Programs— Disseminating Inaccurate and Biased Information (Policy Brief) (available online only)
In Fiscal Year 2007, Illinois received more than $7.6 million in federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programming, with 41 grantees across the state receiving funds for abstinence-only programs in schools and communities. Given the extent of abstinence-only programs in the state, many young people in Illinois are exposed to the dangerous short-comings of these programs. This report reviews four popular abstinence-only curricula used in Illinois for inaccuracies, misinformation, and biases that put the state’s youth at risk.

Improving U.S. Global AIDS Policy for Young People: Assessing PEPFAR (Report) (available online only)
Under former President Bush’s administration, U.S. government policies severely limited the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR’s) use of effective, science-based, public health strategies to reduce HIV transmission among youth. This report discusses three major shortcomings of policies under PEPFAR and the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC): that ideology trumps science in PEPFAR’s HIV prevention strategy for young people; that OGAC resists linking HIV prevention with reproductive health care and services; and that HIV-positive adolescents receive inadequate attention as a vulnerable population.

The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding (The Facts) (Order publication - $2.00)
This document presents the eight-point definition of abstinence-only education; discusses federal funding streams for abstinence-only, the content required of funded curricula, and programs’ administration and oversight; and concludes with a chart detailing the federal funding directed to abstinence-only programs since 1982.

The Truth About Abstinence-Only Programs (The Facts) (available online only)
Accurate, balanced sex education helps young people to reduce their risk of potentially negative outcomes, such as unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Yet, federal policy makers have provided large amounts of funding for abstinence-only education. This document explores some of the claims that have been put forward to support federal funding for abstinence-only education rather than for comprehensive sex education.