Bush Administration Tries to Lure States into Supporting Abstinence-Only Sex-Ed

By Scott Swenson, RH Reality Check. Posted July 25, 2008.

The Bush Administration Department of Health and Human Services isn't getting much rest these days, using every moment of their final few months to leave an indelible ideological mark on government.

Last week, the Bush Administration, in the person of Robert W. Patterson of the Children, Family and Youth Services Bureau, issued a letter waiving the annual application process and review for the Title V Abstinence-Only State Grant Program.

In the letter obtained by RH Reality Check, Patterson writes:

The good news is that with this announcement, states and territories may apply for funds for five years, from FY 2009 through FY 2013. States will not be required to re-apply in the four subsequent years unless they make substantive changes to their program.

The 82-page (PDF) says:

The project period under this program announcement is 60 months. Applications submitted by States cover funding for FY 2009 through FY 2013. States will not be required to submit additional applications for the years FY 2010 through FY 2013 unless there are material changes made to the program.

While Patterson's letter reminds applicants that Congress must still authorize the money, his suggestion that they can apply for five-year grants implies, "that this program has an unquestioned permanence that it does not, and has not for several years, amidst all the short term extensions," said Bill Smith, Vice President of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS).

Smith called the letter, "an attempt to mislead the states."

Marcela Howell, Vice President of Advocates for Youth agreed, saying, "This is smoke and mirrors on the part of HHS when they know the money has not been authorized."

Congress has extended the very controversial abstinence-only program in the face of mounting evidence of its failure to produce any measurable results. Even as Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, they have chosen to allow the programs to continue rather than confront far-right proponents of abstinence-only with the program's numerous failures as documented by public health experts.

At least twenty-three states have rejected abstinence-only-until-marriage programs so far, and the number is growing. Some states refuse because they don't like the ideological inflexibility, the strings that the federal government puts on states who receive the money. They've read the studies, the non-partisan evidence, and have seen the ab-only programs at work at the local level and they are rejecting the ab-only federal money in increasing numbers.

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