Abstinence message for 20-somethings
The federal government’s “no sex without marriage” message isn’t just for kids anymore.
The government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.
The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it’s a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.
“They’ve stepped over the line of common sense,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that supports sex education. “To be preaching abstinence when 90 percent of people are having sex is to lose touch with reality. It’s an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health.”
Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method of preventing pregnancy or disease, with no instruction on birth control or safe sex.
The National Center for Health Statistics says well more than 90 percent of adults 20 to 29 years old have had sexual intercourse.
Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says the revised focus is aimed at 19- to 29-year-olds because more unmarried women in that age group are having children.
The revised guidelines specify that states seeking grants are “to identify groups … most likely to bear children out of wedlock, targeting adolescents and/or adults within the 12- through 29-year-old age range.” Previous guidelines didn’t mention an age group target.
Last year, 46 states applied for federal abstinence education money to fund programs in schools, neighborhood clubs and faith-based organizations.
Sarah Brown, director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, says abstinence programs are among many messages that have helped reduce teen pregnancy rates. But “the notion that the federal government is supporting millions of dollars’ worth of messages to people who are grown adults about how to conduct their sex life is a very divisive policy,” she said.
“We would oppose any program that stigmatizes unmarried people,” added Nicky Grist, executive director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of unmarried people.
“I think the program should talk about the problem with out-of-wedlock childbearing – not about your sex life,” Brown said. “If you use contraception effectively and consistently, you will not be in the pool of out-of-wedlock births.”