Do Not Allow the "Amending" of Federal Abstinence Funding, S.105 (Welfare Reform Bill)

On March 9, 2005 at 10:00 a.m., the Senate Finance Committee will consider the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005, S.105,
better known as Welfare Reform. In this bill is the Title V A-H definition of abstinence education.

There is a credible threat that Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) will attempt to amend the definition of abstinence education to include contraception and so-called "safe sex" promotion. There is also a chance that an amendment will be offered on so-called "medical accuracy" or to authorize spending for a whole new sex-ed program. We will not have specific information about the amendment until late on Tuesday.

The members of the committee must be contacted and asked to abstain from amending the definition of abstinence education, and to vote against any anti-abstinence amendments.

Senate Finance Committee Members:

Sen. Charles Grassley, IA, (202) 224-3744,

Sen. Orrin Hatch, UT, (202) 224-5251,

Sen. Trent Lott, MS, ( 202) 224-6253,

Sen. Olympia Snowe, ME, (202) 224-5344,

Sen. Jon Kyl, AZ, ( 202) 224-4521,

Sen. Craig Thomas, WY, ( 202) 224-2752,

Sen. Rick Santorum, PA, ( 202) 224-6324,

Sen. Bill Frist, TN, (202) 224-3344,

Sen. Gordon Smith, OR, (202) 224-3753,

Sen. Jim Bunning, KY, ( 202) 224-4343,

Sen. Mike Crapo, ID, (202) 224-6142,

Sen. Max Baucus, MT, (202) 224-2651,

Sen. John Rockefeller IV, WV, ( 202) 224-6472,

Sen. Kent Conrad, ND, ( 202) 224-2043,

Sen. James Jeffords, VT, ( 202) 224-5141,

Jeff Bingaman, NM, ( 202) 224-5521,

John F. Kerry, MA, (202) 224-2742,

Blanche Lincoln, AR, (202) 224-4843,

Ron Wyden, OR, (202) 224-5244,

Charles Schumer, NY, (202) 224-6542,

Senate Majority Whip:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY, ( 202) 224-2541,

Please call AND write and email, with the following message:

Your Name
Address
Phone Number

Vote NO on any anti-abstinence amendments to the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2005, including those that would change the current federal definition of an abstinence education program or that would authorize new spending for yet another "comprehensive" sex-ed program.

Other Talking Points to Include in Your Letter:

The CDC found that 53% of the drop in the teen pregnancy rate was due to increased abstinence. Another peer-reviewed, published research paper found that 100% of the drop in the single teen birth rate was due to teen abstinence.

No condom-based sex education program has ever been shown to prevent teen pregnancy, STD's or HIV/AIDS.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) in 2002 found that the government gave far more funding to contraception programs than to abstinence education. The Heritage Foundation followed up that research, finding that federal and state governments spend only $1 to teach teenagers about abstinence and fidelity for every $12 spent on safe sex and contraceptive instruction.

More teens are abstaining and waiting until they are older to become sexually active (2004 National Survey of Family Growth Report, "Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraception Use, and Childbearing").

Studies have consistently shown that adolescent females who engage in early sexual activity are more likely to become depressed, attempt suicide, and have problems forming stable marriages in the future.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health found that sexually active teenage girls are three times more likely to attempt suicide than their abstinent peers.

The national teenage pregnancy rate fell 28% in the past decade, from 116.9 per 1,000 teenage girls ages 15 - 19 in 1990 to 83.6 in 2000. The teenage abortion rate fell from 40 out of every 100 pregnancies to 33.

Teen pregnancy costs taxpayers $7 billion a year.

Abstinence education is well referenced in peer-reviewed journals and other reputable sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Condom promotion has failed both domestically and internationally to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and premarital pregnancy.

Condoms are NOT a primary prevention against genital Human Papillomavirus (HPV) (CDC Report to Congress, 2004).

As much as 97% of all cervical cancer is caused by HPV infection. More women die each year from cervical cancer than from AIDS. HPV is now also associated with cancers of the mouth, throat, anus and prostate.

Abstinence until marriage and fidelity afterwards is the only 100% effective method to prevent STDs and out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

Several abstinence education programs have shown positive results in preventing teen sexual activity, the cause of teen premarital pregnancy and teen STDs.

Teens respond to the messages within abstinence education

Abstinence Education Under Fire
by Keith Peters, Washington, D.C., correspondent

Proposed amendment to welfare-reform bill would favor condom-based sex-ed programs.

An abstinence-only education grant is in danger of being watered down in the Senate Finance Committee, but pro-abstinence groups are vowing that the fight to protect children will continue no matter what happens.

The concern centers around Title V, part of the 1996 welfare reform act. It stipulates that $50 million be set aside annually for education programs that exclusively teach and promote premarital abstinence. But an amendment to change what constitutes abstinence-only education is being offered by Sen. Max Baucus, R-Mont.

That amendment would, according to Abstinence Clearinghouse President Leslee Unruh, "kill abstinence until marriage."

Brigitte Maher of the Family Research Council said the money set aside for teaching abstinence is a pittance compared to what so-called comprehensive sex-education programs get.

"Contraception sex-ed programs in 2002 got $1.73 billion, so of course that's going to be higher now," she said. "These programs are vastly over funded."

That's especially true, she added, when you consider that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

"This is where we should be putting our money," she said. "We need be funding programs that teach young people to save themselves for marriage."

FOR MORE INFORMATION
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