AEGiS-BAYW: Senate to consider abstinence only amendment

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Senate to consider abstinence only amendment

Bay Windows - May 25, 2006
Ethan Jacobs, ejacobs@baywindows.com

HIV/AIDS advocates are hoping to block an amendment that would allow Gov. Mitt Romney to use federal funding to fund abstinence-only sex education programs. The Senate budget proposal from the Ways and Means Committee contains a provision preventing the state from using state or federal funds for abstinence-only education, but Sen. Steven Baddour (D-Haverhill) filed an amendment to the budget that would remove that provision.

Sophie Godley, AIDS Action's deputy director of programs, said federal funding to companies providing abstinence-only education curricula would allow those companies to offer schools their services free of charge. Godley said schools have seen their state funding for health classes plummet, and given the choice between no sex ed or free abstinence-only sex ed, she expects many schools will take the latter option. She said many of the companies providing these curricula specifically advocate abstinence-only until heterosexual marriage. Abstinence-only curricula would also exclude all information about how to protect oneself from STDs by practicing safer sex.

"There will be more offerings of these anti-gay unscientifically based [curricula], there's no evidence that these programs work, and they'll be pushed into more school districts," said Godley.

Angus McQuilken, director of communications and government affairs for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, which provides comprehensive sex ed to Massachusetts, said his organization is also advocating against Baddour's amendment.

"Our concern is not with the abstinence. That is part of our curriculum as well. We're concerned with the 'only,'" said McQuilken.

Massachusetts has received federal funding for abstinence-only education since 1998, but in the past it has been used to fund public information campaigns rather than for the classroom. Romney announced a change in that practice April 20, announcing that he would award the abstinence-only education provider Healthy Futures $300,000 in FY06 and $500,000 in FY07 in federal funding to provide abstinence-only education to schools throughout the state.

The House budget included a ban on using federal funding for abstinence-only education, as does the Senate budget. McQuilken said he believes there is strong support in the legislature to defeat Baddour's amendment.

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