William Smith is Executive Director of the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) and previously Vice President for Public Policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).
Why hasn’t Illinois turned down Title V abstinence-only money? Maybe because Illinois not only receives one of the largest chunks of abstinence-only funds, but it hosts two of the largest providers of the curricula.
President-Elect Obama has pledged to end funding for programs that do not work and, after $1.5 billion in taxpayer money, evidence is clear that abstinence-only programs do not work.
Of the twenty-five states that have turned down Title V abstinence-only funds, 80% have taken their leave because of principled stands that abstinence-only does not work.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell may soon re-enroll the state in the federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program. This decision would represent the prioritizing of short term political gain over the long term health of Pennsylvania’s young people.
U.S. advocates are asking for the creation of a National AIDS Strategy (NAS) and it was a recurrent them in the various IAC sessions.
A handful of states are totally free of any federal abstinence-only money and close to half of all states have turned down Title V ab-only grant money for the coming fiscal year. The ab-only industry barely defends itself anymore.
Both the members of Congress and the lone public health researcher who spoke in support of abstinence-only at the recent Congressional hearing were scrambling for evidence.
The current politicization of HIV prevention by the US Administration and its favored groups here at home and around the globe, remains the largest single threat to curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Last night, I spent the evening doing what every Washington ideologue who supports the “prostitution pledge” should be required to do–I walked through a community called Kafue, in Zambia.
The future of federal funding for abstinence-only education.
