Abstinence-Only Sex Ed – If It Doesn’t Work, Spend More Money On It

Remember all that recent talk about a study suggesting that abstinence-only sex ed “does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom?” Go get caught up if you need to. And yet, today, the House Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee approved a spending bill to increase 2008 funding for the Community-Based Abstinence Education program $27.8 million, or 24.5%, over their 2007 allocation, growing to $141 million.

The story is covered in the Washington Times, but you can also get the Committee Markup Release and accompanying chart. In the same stroke, the Subcommittee also increased “Title X family planning funding by $27.8 million, to $311 million, but family planning advocates said this still lags far behind historic levels of funding, when adjusted for inflation.”