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Home » News » Archives » Responsible Spending: Using our Tax Dollars to Advance Truth and Good Health Care Policy
Responsible Spending: Using our Tax Dollars to Advance Truth and Good Health Care Policy Responsible Spending: Using our Tax Dollars to Advance Truth and Good Health Care Policy By Lorie Chaiten* When President Bush proposed an increase of nearly $40 million in federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education in his fiscal year 2006 budget, he asked Congress to endorse censorship, misinformation and indoctrination � in our public school system. If Congress gives the President the funding he requested - and they probably will - the federal government will misspend nearly $206 million next fiscal year on health education programs that a growing body of evidence shows are ineffective, at best, and dangerous, at worst. The Responsible Education About Life (REAL) Act, introduced in February by lawmakers in both houses of Congress, is the antidote to the unproven, misleading, and harmful approach of abstinence-only sex education. The REAL Act depends not on misinformation, but relies instead on truth, accuracy and responsibility. Federally funded abstinence-only programs focus exclusively by law on abstinence and often are prohibited from discussing contraceptives except to emphasize their failure rates. Programs funded under the REAL Act would teach millions of schoolchildren that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. The programs under the REAL law, however, also would include information about how to use contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and infection. In addition, REAL would require funded programs to provide age-appropriate and medically accurate information and to refrain from using taxpayer dollars to advance or preach religion, a constitutional safeguard that many abstinence-only programs fail to provide. In the current political climate, the chance that REAL, commonsense legislation that meets the need of a pressing national problem, becomes law is almost negligible. Meanwhile, the odds that abstinence-only programs will get the substantial increase requested by the President are a near certainty. This reality might be little more than a political sidebar, if the need for funding high quality sex education programs was not so critical. In a proposed federal budget that includes the deepest cuts to domestic spending in nearly two decades, including extensive reductions to health care programs for the poor, food stamps, and research on chronic diseases, is it a responsible use of taxpayer money to increase funding for ineffective abstinence-only education? According to the most recent statistics, more than 800,000 young women between 15 and 19 years old got pregnant in 2000. Each year, more than nine million 15-24 year olds are infected with sexually transmitted infections, a figure that accounts for one-half of all new HIV infections. A growing body of evidence shows that most abstinence-only programs do not help teens delay having sex. More disturbing, some studies reveal that abstinence-only programs actually increase risk-taking behaviors among sexually active teens, because they have not had access to the information they need to make decisions about contraception and protection against disease. By contrast, evidence shows that comprehensive, accurate sex education programs that provide information about abstinence as well as the effective use of contraception can help delay the start of sexual activity while at the same time ensuring that teens who do become sexually active have the critical information they need to protect themselves. Despite this emerging evidence, there is currently no federal program dedicated to funding comprehensive sex education. Averting the dollars misspent on abstinence-only education to start-up a comprehensive sex-ed program would be the responsible choice for our teens and our nation. Beyond questions about the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs, doesn't government have an obligation to advance truth and accuracy. A recent review of federally funded abstinence-only curricula prepared by Representative Henry A. Waxman (D, CA) found that more than two-thirds of the programs examined distort information about contraceptives, misrepresent the risks of abortion, blur religion and science, promote gender stereotypes, and contain fundamental scientific errors. Without any credible evidence, one curriculum wrongly asserts that 5 percent to 10 percent of women who have abortions become sterile. Another incorrectly suggests that HIV can be contracted through exposure to sweat and tears. Yet, when lawmakers attempted to add a requirement that some abstinence-only programs funded by the federal government contain medically accurate information, the effort fell on deaf ears. Defending his budget recently, President Bush rightly asserted, �A taxpayer dollar ought to be spent wisely or not spent at all.� In continuing to fund abstinence-only education and in further asking for an increase in spending, the Bush administration has shown that it is not interested in spending wisely or responsibly. When it comes to protecting America's youth, REAL is clearly the wise choice. Unfortunately, under Bush�s spendthrift approach to sex education, it is America's youth who will continue to pay too high a price for government irresponsibility. * Lorie Chaiten is the Director of the Reproductive Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. |
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