USA: Health care reform re-authorizes the failed abstinence-only-until-marriage initiative

This morning, President Obama made history by signing health care reform into law. While there are many things in the legislation that will benefit young people — including $75 million for evidence-based sex education programs — the bill also re-authorizes the failed abstinence-only-until-marriage initiative referred to as Title V. There is simply no reason that funding for these ineffective programs should have been included in health care reform. Three things remain shockingly clear:

1. These programs still do not work. An eight-year evaluation funded by Congress demonstrated that these programs have "no impact on teen behavior."
2. Abstinence-only programs put the health and lives of young people at risk by censoring critical health information about contraception and condoms and violate the rights of all young people to honest, accurate, and complete information.
3. Taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill for $250 million in wasted spending over five years, making a mockery of conservative Democrats' claims that they want to cut spending or reduce the deficit.

This was not a calculated compromise to get extra votes. There was no public pretense that these programs would improve the health of America's youth. Congressional leaders had any number of opportunities to simply remove abstinence-only funding from the final bill. [...] Health care reform is indeed an historic step forward, and this new law includes many provisions that will benefit young people in the years to come (by expanding Medicaid and extending young people's coverage under parental insurance, to name just two examples). This bill should never have included provisions that trample on the rights of the very people it was designed to help. Advocates for Youth intends to mount a grassroots campaign that will hold politicians accountable for denying young people the right to honest, accurate sex education.

Source: advocatesforyouth.org newsletter, 2010-03-23