Obama axes funding for ‘abstinence-only’ sex education
By Harry Farley, Christian Today:
Barack Obama has cut all funding for sex education programmes which teach it is best to wait until marriage.
In a move that will enrage many Republican Christians, abstinence-based sex education programmes will lose their $10 million-a-year grant under the US President’s 2017 budget proposal.
The final budget of Obama’s administration will also increase funding for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and maintain it for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Adolescent and School Health.
Currently the US Department of Health and Human Services offers grants to states and territories teaching abstinence-based programmes. However Obama’s budget would eliminate this completely and therefore remove any incentive to teach such programmes.
Congress has until the new fiscal year begines on October 1 to debate the 2017 budget.
Interim President and CEO of the the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US (SIECUS), Jesseca Boyer issued a statement praising Obama’s decision, which she believes will reduce teen pregnancy. “SIECUS is grateful for President Obama’s leadership in seeking to end abstinence-only-until-marriage funding once and for all,” she said.
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