Abstinence Only Funding Slashed; Ryan White CARE Act Funded

While a federal program designed to promote abstinence outside of the bonds of heterosexual marriage has seen $28 million lopped from its funding, the Ryan White CARE Act picked up an additional $31 million in a proposal this week from a Senate subcommittee.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education approved a fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill on Tuesday that reduces funding for the Community-Based Abstinence Education programs by $28.5 million, according to a Human Rights Campaign press release issued Wednesday.

These programs have been found to routinely teach medically inaccurate information about contraception and HIV/AIDS, and mandate teaching that sex outside of a heterosexual marriage "is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects."

The Republican-led Congress of recent years has dropped around $50 million per year on an abstinence-only program of education to promote sex within the bounds of heterosexual union to students, despite critical skepticism and scientific studies demonstrating that the programs simply do not work, including a study from April by the Mathematica Policy Research group that demonstrated that students given abstinence-only sex ed classes, as opposed to comprehensive sex education, had intercourse outisde of marriage at rates comparable to students who did not receive abstinence-only classes.

Other sources, including the 2006 book Aids in America, a comprehensive overview of the AIDS crisis in this country by Susan Hunter, an independent consultant to international health organization, have noted that abstinence-only programs impart flawed or patently false information, including lessons that claim that condoms do not prevent HIV infection or prevent pregnancy.

Skeptics like Hunter point to data from The Natonal Center for Health Statistics that suggest that those students who do refrain from vaginal sexual intercourse due to the inaccurate information they receive from such programs substitute oral and anal sex--which can be riskier in terms of disease transmission.

Abstinence-only programs have also been lambasted for isolating LGBT youth due to the focus of such educational courses on "heterosexual marriage" being the only acceptable context in which to engage in sexual contact.

"We urge the Senate to maintain these funding cuts for abstinence education and instead fund HIV prevention based on science and proven effectiveness," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

Eight states have declined to take part in the federally funded program.

The funding bill also seeks to redress neglect in recent years for HIV/AIDS programs, providing for about $31 million in added funds for the Ryna White CARE Act, which includes $25 million in funds for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

Solmonese praised the additon of funds to the Ryan White CARE Act, but lamented the negligence of the Republican-dominated Congress of past years to maintain those programs.

"The additional funding for the Ryan White CARE Act, while welcomed, unfortunately does not make up for the years of neglect these programs have been forced to endure over the past many years," said Solmonese.

"HIV/AIDS remains a crisis in our nation, especially among communities of color," Solomnese continued. "Although this is an important first step in turning around the pattern of funding cuts, we urge the Senate to consider providing an additional increase for Ryan White so that those on the front lines of the epidemic can meet the significant need for lifesaving services."