Once again House Democrats have caved on an important Abstinence-Only vote. This time, The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies voted to continue funding the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program. This program funnels taxpayer dollars into abstinence-only programs that are proven failures, and continue to spread misleading information to the nation's teens.
CBAE is just one of the federal funding streams for abstinence-only program dollars, unique because it bypasses the state approval process (Title V money) and gives federal monies directly to abstinence-only programs. Seventeen states have now refused Title V money, largely because of the failures of abstinence-only programs. One would think Democrats in Congress might get a clue when so many states refuse federal money.
Caroline Fredrickson of the ACLU in Washington, DC said, “It’s hard to imagine a good reason why, in these tight economic times, Congress would intentionally flush taxpayer dollars down the drain by spending them on disproven, ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. We are floored that they continue to ignore study after study, and the consensus of the public health community, all concluding that these programs censor vital health care information, teach gender stereotypes, discriminate against lesbian and gay teens, and in some cases promote religion in the classroom in violation of the Constitution."
