title:  Obama FINALLY Eliminates Funding For Abstinence-Only Sex Ed
text: President Obama s new budget will eliminate all government funding for abstinence-only sex education.For too long the federal government has been using tax dollars to support abstinence-only sex education programs, in spite of the fact that an overwhelming amount of evidence shows that such programs do not work.The federal government first began funding these programs in 1981, under then-president Ronald Reagan. According to the Sexuality Information and Education Center of America (SIECUS), between 1996 until 2006 funding for these programs  grew exponentially. All told, over the past 25 years, Congress has spent more than $1.5 billion on failed abstinence-only programs.In spite of the shocking amount of money invested in these program, the evidence tells us that they do nothing to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy and abortion, nor do they help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted disease. In fact, the opposite is true.For example,An independent study commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Health found that sexual activity doubled among junior high school participants in the state s Education Now and Babies Later (ENABL) program at three schools between 2001 and 2002. The number of participants who said they would  probably  have sex during high school almost doubled as well.As Addicting Info reported here the rate of teen pregnancy in states that require comprehensive-sex education has been declining steadily for the past several years.At the same time, the rate of teen pregnancy in conservative states, where abstinence-only sex education is allowed and even mandated, remains embarrassingly high.As we also reported here, as of 2014, the state with the highest number of teen pregnancies was New Mexico, followed by Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. All of these states have shamelessly backwards laws regarding sex education, which mandate sex-education programs stress abstinence and  the importance of sex only during marriage. The liberal states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Maine had the lowest numbers of teen pregnancies in the nation during the same year.President Obama s decision to eliminate federal funding for programs that have been proven ineffective when it comes to reducing teen pregnancy, abortion and STD s will not only save Americans the $10 million upfront cost of these programs.Teen pregnancy costs the U.S. approximately $9.4 billion.Eliminating federal funding for abstinence-only sex education programs will encourage schools to choose curriculum that is science-based and fact-based.As more schools move toward putting this type of curriculum in place, rather than relying on the fantasy-based abstinence-only model that conservatives endorse, the rate of teen pregnancy and teen abortion will finally begin to decline in red states, along with the number of teens who are exposed to sexually transmitted disease.In the long run, the decision to eliminate funding for failed abstinence-only programs will save teen lives, all while saving taxpayers billions of dollars.Image from Wikipedia