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Timeline of abstinence-Only Education in U.S. Classrooms
A Brief Look at How Over $1.5 Billion in Federal Funds Have Been Spent on 26 Years of Censorship in Schools
1981 Congress passes Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA, Title XX of the Public Health Service Act. The program is designed to encourage adolescents to postpone sexual activity until marriage, emphasizing “chastity” and “self-discipline,” as well as provide support for pregnant or parenting teens and their families. The program has received over 114 million tax dollars to date, including $ 13 million in the 2007 fiscal year.
1996 Title V of the Welfare Reform Act, or the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), set up a new system of grants for states providing abstinence-only-until-marriage education, delineating a specific eight-point criteria that programs must adhere to in order known as the A-H elements.
A has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
B teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children;
C teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
D teaches that a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity;
E teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
F teaches that bearing children out-of-wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;
G teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increase vulnerability to sexual advances, and
H teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.
Funding through this program requires that states match every five dollars of federal donations with four dollars of state funds. California is the only state to immediately reject the program.
2001 A third stream of federal funding for abstinence-only education is established under the Special Projects of Regional and National Significance–Community-Based Abstinence Education (SPRANS–CBAE), in which the federal government extends grants to community organizations directly.
2005 -SPRANS–CBAE is moved from under the administration of the Health and Human Services (HHS) into the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and is changed simply to Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE).
2006 Funding totals $176,000,000 for AFLA, CBAE, and Title V state grants for the 2006 fiscal year, the highest yet. In January, the CBAE releases a new 11-page program outline for grantees, with a new emphasis on conservative family values, focusing on the supposed psychological and social “gains” of marriage, and the importance of responsible parenthood, “especially fatherhood.” The new provisions include an extension of funding toward programs targeting unmarried individuals up to age 29.
“Material must not encourage the use of any type of contraceptive outside of marriage or refer to abstinence as a form of contraception.”
“[Material] Teaches how to avoid settings that involve possible interaction with pornography, (e.g. explicit movies, TV, magazines, Internet).”
2007 Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wyoming refuse Title V funding, joining the ranks with California, Connecticut, Maine, Montana, and Wisconsin.
A 10 - year government study is released proving the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education in preventing pregnancy and STIs among adolescents.
The House moves to approve $27.8 million new dollars to fund the CBAE, ignoring the recent study.
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