Obama Should Trash Ab-Only Funds
Obama is our only hope
This week, advocates got word that the House cut back on the dreadful abstinence-only funding by 13 percent in its 2009 budget. While that’s an improvement over the increase in such funding Pelosi and company initiated in 2007, it still means $95 million will go to programs that fail to prevent HIV and unwanted pregnancies. Obama’s transition team asked the House to cut ab-only funding by $28 million, and the House met him halfway.
But comprehensive sex ed advocates are pinning their hopes on Obama to zero out money for ab-only education in his 2010 budget, and hoping Congress doesn’t do anything to jeopardize this.
“The reason people haven’t made a real stink about it is this is the first cut we’ve had. All the effort has gone to influencing Obama’s 2010 health budget,” said Marcela Howell, Vice President of Advocates for Youth.
So far, all signs point towards the welcome death of ab-only funding. In Obama’s broad budget overview Thursday, he used the important buzz words “evidenced-based” in calling for models of prevention.
In Obama’s Health and Human Services overview it stated, “The Budget supports State, community-based, and faith-based efforts to reduce teen pregnancy using evidence based models. The program will fund models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically-accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have already become sexually active.” Obama is expected to release his complete 2010 budget in March.
In addition Howell said her group met with Obama’s Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, and that Barnes “seemed amenable to eliminating funding.” And ab-only funding fits the bill of Obama’s call Tuesday that “in this budget, we will end education programs that don’t work.”
Getting to zero
There are three different streams of funding for abstinence-only education: the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, the Adolescent Family Life Act, and Title V, which sends block grants to states. As rhrealitycheck.org notes, “it should tell you something about the unpopularity of the program that 16 states have turned down Title V funds even as state budgets reel.”
But the Congress has been a challenge, said Bill Smith, vice president of policy for SIECUS, a comprehensive sex education advocacy group. “Obama must lead on this, so Congress will follow suit,” he said.
But Housing Works President and CEO Charles King said that Obama should have let it be known that he wouldn’t sign a 2009 spending omnibus that included ab-only funding. “This may be a systemic issue that the White House needs to weigh in sooner with legislation. Certainly the White House knows this is a hot issue,” King said.
And this is an issue where Congress hasn’t shown much leadership. After Dems took control of Congress, advocates assumed ab-only education would soon be a bad dream. But Pelosi and HHS Chair Rep. David Obey proved all-too-eager to use ab-only funding as a bargaining chip with Republicans.
“Obey’s not a big supporter of any reproductive health issues,” Howell said.
Advocates are cautiously optimistic that this could be the last budget the United States ever sees with funding for abstinence-only education. Reproductive health and HIV/AIDS groups have been collaborating on grassroots actions to lobby Congress and the President to zero out the funding. In addition, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Barbara Lee—co-sponsors of the REAL Act, which would fund comprehensive sex education—are drafting a letter asking the President to do just that.
Tell Obama not to fund abstinence-only sex education! Call the White House at 202-456-1111
Talking points:
- Sex ed should be medically accurate, not based on religious ideology
- Studies show that abstinence-only programs fail to prevent pregnancy and STDs
- For FY2010 budget, eliminate the $176 million currently spent on abstinence-only programs
photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/notbrucelee/3280543803/
Posted on February 27, 2009 at 1:50 am
Share
Donate Today
Join our healing community by becoming a member today
