Mo’ Money for Monogamy

[Judi Lynn]

Mo’ Money for Monogamy
Pro-life organizations are receiving millions of federal dollars in the name of “abstinence education.”
By Silja J.A. Talvi

Over the past five years, the Bush administration has put more than $600 million federal dollars into the coffers of abstinence-until-marriage programs. Critics contend that such funding is a back-door way to provide infrastructure funding to the religious right since many of these no-sex sex education programs are housed within Christian, evangelical, pro-life organizations.

Most recently,the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families from issuing the latest batch of federal disbursements, totaling $37 million to 63 grantees.

Wade Horn, HHS Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, announced the grantees in mid-October, saying, “the only way to be 100 percent certain that kids avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases is to stay abstinent until marriage.”
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The relationship between abstinence and health is highly questionable. A March 2005 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reported that STD rates among virginity “pledgers” and non-pledgers were about the same. Furthermore, the findings indicated that virginity pledgers were less likely to see a doctor if they feared having contracted an STD, and were consequently less frequently tested for and/or diagnosed for STDs.
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http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2393/