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H.R. 4585, TO
AMEND TITLE V OF THE SOCIAL
SECURITY ACT TO ABSTINENCE EDUCATION Minority Views We submit these minority views because H.R. 4585 was reported by the Committee on Energy and Commerce without the adoption of three common sense amendments offered by our colleagues Representatives Harman, Capps, and Waxman. The purpose of these amendments was not to decrease or discontinue the allocation of federal funds in the sum of $50 million per year for each of the fiscal years 2003 through 2007, under Title V of the Social Security Act. The purpose of these amendments was merely to provide states with the flexibility to offer programs that are best suited to the needs and desires of their citizens and to ensure that federal funds are spent on effective programs that provide medically accurate information. Representative Harman’s amendment would have provided states with the flexibility to choose the type of abstinence-based sex education programs appropriate for their citizens. Currently, no federal funding is provided for comprehensive sex education programs, while funding for abstinence-only education will exceed $100 million this year alone. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 84 percent of parents support age appropriate comprehensive sex education programs over restrictive abstinence-only programs.* The Harman amendment would have allowed the scarce school-based teen pregnancy prevention resources provided by Title V to be used by each state in a manner consistent with the desires of its citizens. Abstinence is an important message to send to all teens, but it should not be the only message sent. Many leading medical experts agree that teenagers need comprehensive sex education. A National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine report, "No Time to Lose: Getting More from HIV Prevention," supported comprehensive sex education programs as an effective way to reduce high-risk sexual behaviors among adolescents. Other respected health organizations including the National Institutes of Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association, recommend school districts offer comprehensive sex education as a way to impart this important public health information to students, as well as reduce risky behavior. The Harman amendment would have allowed states to use federal funds under Title V for a choice of abstinence-based curricula. Representative Capps’ amendment would have required that federal funding only be dispensed to educational programs deemed "medically accurate" by leading medical, psychological, psychiatric, and public health organizations and agencies. Some abstinence-only programs are actually harmful to teenagers because they provide incomplete, inaccurate, and misleading information with regard to contraceptives, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Some curricula promote the idea that contraceptives fail so often as to be worthless, yet such claims are statistically unfounded according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some curricula sensationalize depictions of late-stage STDs, but do not inform teens to the first symptoms of treatable STDs. Anyone receiving medical services or public health education is entitled to receive medically accurate facts. Depriving teens of medically accurate information will not protect them; it will only make them more vulnerable to the very problems that sex education programs are supposed to address. Finally, Representative Waxman’s amendment would have required that federally funded programs be based on models that have demonstrated effectiveness in reducing unwanted pregnancies or in reducing the transmission of STDs or HIV/AIDS. To date, there are no studies that have proven conclusively that abstinence-only education programs actually fulfill their stated goals of reducing teen pregnancy and decreasing the incidences of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. A recent study found no credible evidence that abstinence-only education has any significant impact on participants’ initiation of or frequency of sexual activity. This amendment would have simply required that federal funding only be distributed to programs which have undergone a review process and which have demonstrated an ability to decrease teenage pregnancy and STD rates. Continuing to support programs, with no proven efficacy is fiscally and socially irresponsible. Unfortunately, all three of these amendments were defeated, essentially ensuring that states will not have the flexibility to accept federal dollars for a comprehensive sex education program of their choice, ensuring that there is no requirement for schools to teach medically accurate facts with regard to sex education, and ensuring that unproven, potentially detrimental programs will continue to receive large amounts of federal funding. * Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), Sex Education in America: A View From Inside the Nation's Classrooms, Chart Pack, Charts 12, 14 (2000).
John D. Dingell | |
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