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Abstinence proponents keep hope alive for Title V funds

House Democrats have followed through on their promise to allow a federally funded abstinence education program to expire. In response, proponents of the program are being urged to lobby congressional lawmakers to continue funding the initiative.



The House and Senate left for the holiday recess without agreeing on how to fund the Title V Abstinence Education program, yet promised it would be high on the list of priorities when they return Monday from a weeklong break. The Senate recently moved to extend the initiative for three months.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), is cautiously optimistic about the fate of the program, which expired Saturday. "It seems like we have a number of reasonable people on both sides of the aisle who recognize that abstinence education is an important initiative and that it should be continued."

She acknowledges that the three-month extension is only a short period -- and for that reason, her group has a lot of work to do after the congressional recess. "[T]his battle is not over," she states. "Even when they return after the July 4th recess, we have a lot of education to do and a lot of encouragement to give members of Congress to extend this beyond the next three months."

The abstinence proponent shares her concerns about what may happen if House Democrats succeed in permanently killing the program. "[In] those states where abstinence education is mandated by state law, if Title V is not provided for funding this initiative, the local school district are going to have to come up with the money somehow to implement that," she says; "and financially strapped districts are going to have a real difficulty in doing so."

Huber says in states where abstinence education is not required to be taught, there is no telling what type of sexual education instruction children will be receiving. That is why she is encouraging advocates of abstinence education to lobby their congressmen to continue abstinence funding -- and a good time to do that, she adds, would be while lawmakers are in their home districts for 4th of July parades and holiday festivities.