Wisconsin Rejects Abstinence-Only Funding

I've always said that if you were really interested in being accurate, you'd call 'abstinence-only' sex ed 'ignorance-only.' The reasoning behind AO is that if you teach kids about things like safe sex practices, they'll run right out and have a lot of sex. The religious right really has a poor opinion of their kids. So, the kids without crazy parents are measured by the crazy parents' yardstick.

Another problem with AO is that it doesn't actually work. So Wisconsin, like many states, is giving it up altogether.

The Capital Times:

Wisconsin will turn down roughly $600,000 in federal abstinence education funding rather than comply with new rules banning a comprehensive approach to pregnancy prevention, said Stephanie Marquis of the Department of Health and Family Services.

Gov. Jim Doyle has directed the department to notify federal officials of his decision, Marquis said Friday.

Marquis said programs receiving these funds would not be able to provide complete information about contraception or sexually transmitted diseases.

Wisconsin is now the fifth state to reject receipt of Title 5 abstinence-only-before-marriage funds for Fiscal Year 2007.

There's absolutely no reason to prefer this horsecrap over proven methods. Bill Smith, vice president for public policy for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a national group with offices in New York and Washington D.C. that promotes comprehensive sex education, told TCT, "It seems to me there is some sanity returning to the notion that sexuality education is about public health and not about hyper-moralism and ideology."

Let's hope so.

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