The Obama Mandate: End Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

[Hello_Kitty]

This may have been posted before but if you haven't signed the petition please do so. These dumb, dangerous, and dishonest programs continue to get federal funds.

The Obama Mandate: End Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
by Jodi Jacobson

Republicans these days are very, very deeply concerned about "wasteful government spending." House Minority Leader John Boehner complained about wasteful spending in the stimulus. Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana stated: "More big government spending...won't cure what ails the American economy." House Republican Whip Eric Kantor made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows talking "waste, waste, waste." And now, according to the New York Times, the National Republican Congressional Committee is launching ads blasting House Democrats on the stimulus bill, which it ridicules as "chockfull of wasteful Washington spending."

You know what? I agree. Let's get rid of that wasteful Washington spending.

And I have a concrete suggestion that will save over $200 million in cold hard cash right away, plus billions of dollars in future healthcare and related economic costs!

Sound too good to be true?

Really, it's not a gimmick. It's very simple: We just need to zero out funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the next budget cycle.

These programs don't work to reduce sexual activity in teens, they don't work to reduce sexually transmitted infections and they don't work to reduce unintended pregnancies.

What is worse, they waste money both on the front end and the back end: The failure of these programs to effectively contribute to preventing unintended pregnancies and infections from the outset actually costs more money in the long run. In 2004, for example, teen childbearing in the United States cost taxpayers at least $9.1 billion, never mind the costs of sexually transmitted infections. So by investing in abstinence-only programs, taxpayers actually are losing billions at a rapid clip.

So it's easy. Eliminate the funding; we all save money now and money later.

...more... http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/18-5