Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Associated Press (12.20.07) - Thursday, December 20, 2007
Heather Clark
Vigil does not oppose abstinence education, so long as teens receive other instruction, but he said funds were allocated for it before its effectiveness was established. "There has never been a scientific consensus about this. It had an ideological base from people who just wanted this to happen for all kinds of reasons," said Vigil.
With the move, New Mexico joins at least 14 other states in foregoing the funds, which cannot be used to discuss contraception, said Deborah Busemeyer, a state Health Department spokesperson. The state spends about $400,000 on sex education, she said. It is not clear how much the abstinence-only funding would have amounted to in 2008, as New Mexico's share fluctuated from $514,000 in 2004 to nothing in 2006, said Busemeyer.
Congressional debate about abstinence sometimes led to delays in approving the funds until late in the school year, as well as to varying sums - other reasons the state will pass on them, said Vigil and Busemeyer. "Those issues made it difficult to manage," Busemeyer said.
"Clearly we need to do more to protect our young people from unwanted pregnancies," said Busemeyer, noting that New Mexico and Texas had the highest number of teen pregnancies in the nation in 2005. "We haven't seen any evidence that [abstinence-only education] worked in New Mexico."
However, in Socorro and Catron counties, which present only abstinence education, unwanted teen pregnancies declined 26 percent over a five-year period, said Laurel Cordova, head of the New Mexico Abstinence Education Coalition. And an Eastern New Mexico University study saw a 10 percent decrease in self- reported sexual activity during an abstinence program, she said.
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