Transitions: The Controversy over Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
Volume 12, No. 3, March 2001

This Transitions is also available in [PDF] format.

In 2000, the Office of National AIDS Policy noted that most students are learning at least something about HIV in school. Between 1995 and 1997, the percentage who said they were taught about HIV/AIDS in school rose from 86 to 92 percent. However, not all students receive evidence-based HIV education.

Although 1996 welfare legislation made available $250 million over five years for abstinence-only-until-marriage education, "none of the curricula on the current list of programs that work uses an 'abstinence only' approach.'" Effective programs, the report notes, provide information about safer sex, condoms, and contraception in addition to encouraging sexual abstinence. The report concludes that "it is a matter of grave concern that there is such a large incentive to adopt unproven abstinence-only approaches."

The Office of National AIDS Policy recommends that the federal government should:

• Ensure that adequate resources are targeted to youth-focused HIV prevention, particularly prevention that targets youth at highest risk for HIV infection.
• Ensure that high-quality HIV prevention programs reach more youth in schools.
• Develop and implement an initiative to promote routine, voluntary HIV counseling and testing for at-risk youth.
• Encourage public/private partnerships that address the full range of needs of high-risk youth.
• Increase support for the development and dissemination of promising models of HIV prevention programs for youth.

In considering research, the Office recommends that the federal government should:

• Ensure that its research agenda for HIV/AIDS includes a component targeted to youth.
• Ensure that appropriate resources are targeted to adolescent-specific AIDS research.
• Take action consistent with federal rules and regulations on research with minors to increase youth participation in [vaccine and other] trials.
• Disseminate research findings to local communities.

The report concludes that Timid hopes for the best are not enough… Young people have a right to depend on us as adults. We must mobilize our nation's resources —resources that are unparalleled in American history—to protect and care for them.

Office of National AIDS Policy. Youth and HIV/AIDS 2000: A New American Agenda. Washington, DC: The White House, 2000.