Medical and public health experts testifying before Congress said that abstinence-only programs are a poor use of tax dollars in terms of reducing teen pregnancy or reducing sexually transmitted diseases. Government statistics show that one in four U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease and 30 percent of U.S. girls become pregnant before the age of 20. These programs, backed by those who oppose the teaching of contraception methods to teenagers in schools, have received about $1.3 billion in federal funds since the late 1990s.
Currently, 17 of the 50 U.S. states refuse to accept federal funds for abstanence-only programs. States include Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Montana, New Jersey, and Wisconsin among others.
A 2007 Government Accounting Office report that surveyed abstinence programs in 10 states concluded that such programs have not proven to work, and at times teach children medically inaccurate about condoms and AIDS.
No comments:
Post a Comment