Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Abstinence-Only in Welfare Debate

Jan 26, 2002

**Abstinence-Only in Welfare Debate
When Congress takes up welfare reauthorization legislation in 2002, the
heated topic of how to keep teen pregnancies on the decline will likely
focus on the abstinence-only-unless-married provisions legislated in
the
1996 law. These provisions prohibited programs from including
information
about contraception aside from failure rates and mandated that programs
teach that ?“sexual activity outside of marriage may have harmful
psychological and physical effects.?” While some lawmakers want to fund
only this approach, others are calling for more flexibility for the
states, especially in light of skepticism and scant data on the
program?’s
effectiveness.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/humres/107cong/11-15-01/107-48final.htm

An abstinence-only policy brief is available from the Center on Law and
Social Policy.
http://www.clasp.org/pubs/teens/AbstinenceEducationIssueBrief01-32awithendnotes.pdf