The Christian Coalition digging deeper into the administration with brilliant programs like this one. Research shows they don’t work, tax cuts and we still have programs like this? Bravo Bush.
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WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing to double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or AIDS despite a lack of evidence that such programs work.
A study by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on declining birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers concludes that prevention programs should emphasize abstinence and contraception.
In Minnesota, a study found that sexual activity doubled among junior high school students taking part in an abstinence-only program. The independent study, commissioned by the state’s health department, recommended broadening the program to include more information about contraception.
Bush would spend $270 million on abstinence-only education, compared with $100 million annually when he took office.
The president also would move the programs into the same agency within the Health and Human Services (news - web sites) Department that oversees religious-based programs and the president’s proposal to promote marriage.
Advocates of comprehensive sex education said the shift, coupled with the additional money, is part of Bush’s election-year appeal to conservatives.
They said the administration’s proposal flies in the face of research that credits both abstinence and contraception with reducing the teenage birth rate by 30 percent in the past decade to historic lows.
“This is money, hundreds of millions of dollars that we could better spend on children and people who need the help,” Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., told HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson at a hearing on the president’s budget proposal.
James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a group that promotes education about birth control and condom use, said abstinence-only programs deprive teenagers of information about the effectiveness of condoms in stopping the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. “These programs have really evolved into anti-condom programs,” Wagoner said.