Federal Abstinence Funds Restored

Special Report - January 10, 2012
In the fading days of 2011, Congress and President Obama approved an omnibus appropriations bill that includes the restoration of $5 million in federal funding for abstinence-based sex education programs. The bill, H.R. 2055—Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012, became law December 23, 2011 with President Obama’s signature, after Congress gave final approval on December 17. The Health and Human Services portion of the $662 billion spending bill includes the direction, “$5,000,000 shall be for making competitive grants to provide abstinence education (as defined by section 510(b)(2)(A)-(H) of the Social Security Act) to adolescents.” The bill also includes $297 for Title X, which is the primary federal funding stream for Planned Parenthood, as well as over $100 million for the comprehensive, contraception-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI).

In 2009, the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program, which was established by President Bush in 2001, was cut from the federal budget by President Obama, resulting in a $16 to $1 funding ratio for condom-based sex education compared to abstinence education. CBAE was not funded at all in either fiscal year 2010 or 2011, as it was replaced with the condom-based sex education program, TPPI. However, as we previously reported, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 restored a total of $250 million in federal funding over the next five years for abstinence education programs, giving states access to $50 million per year through the Title V program.  The $5 million in federal funding for abstinence education that is included in the recently-enacted appropriations bill is a restoration of the CBAE program that was cut in 2001.

“We are very pleased that Congress has chosen to redress a real problem in sex-education policy by re-establishing abstinence education as a program for America’s teens,” Valerie Huber, president of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), told CitizenLink. “This funding of five million dollars is contrasted against about 100 million dollars in the budget for contraceptive sex education…. So we are a long way from parity. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The important thing that we were really working to see accomplished this year was for abstinence education to be re-established as federal sex-education policy.”

Related resources:
More Teens Delaying Sex - November 23, 2011
Abstinence Increasing Among Teens - March 8, 2011
NC Requests Abstinence Funds - September 27, 2010
Parents Strongly Favor Abstinence - August 25, 2010
Abstinence Funding Returns - May 28, 2010
Some Abstinence Funding Restored - March 30, 2010
Abstinence Programs Prove Effective - March 3, 2010
2010 Budget Removes Abstinence Funding - July 31, 2009
Ten Reasons to Keep Abstinence Education in NC - FNC - Jul/Aug, 2008
Title V Abstinence Funding Expires - July 1, 2009

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