|The History of Federal Abstinence-Only Funding| For over a
quarter century, the federal government has supported
abstinence-only education programs that censor information to
youth. Federal support of such programs began in 1982 with a
limited pool of funding through the Adolescent Family Life Act.
Then beginning in 1996, funding for abstinence-only and
abstinence-only-until-marriage programs (hereafter, collectively
called abstinence-only) grew exponentially with the enactment of
welfare reform (P.L. 104-193). The law contained a little
noticed mandate of $50 million a year to fund abstinence-only
programs. In fact, the law amended the Maternal and Child Health
Block Grant legislation (Title V of the Social Security Act) and
was groundbreaking, both for its funding level and also for its
unprecedented, eight-point definition of abstinence education.
This definition (see below) has remained at the core of all
federal abstinence-only funding streams, including the newest
and, arguably, the most controversial