Obama Administration Tries To Split The Difference On Sex Ed

Here’s another way to try to make both sides happy and fail: Announce you’re only going to grant money to sex education programs that are “science-based,” and then give a few million to abstinence-only groups and a crisis pregnancy center.

Rather inconveniently, last week yet another raft of data was released by the CDC showing that states with abstinence-only education curricula have higher rates of teen pregnancy. Per the report:

In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, for instance, 2008 birth rates were less than 25 per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19, CDC found. In the same year, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas all had rates topping 60 per 1,000 teens.

Mississippi had the country’s highest rate (65.7), CDC says, while New Hampshire had the lowest (19.8).

The good news is that the Department of Health and Human Services has given $75 million to programs that appear to be scientifically based. The bad news is that, The Washington Post reports, “Twelve grants totalling more than $9.3 million went to abstinence programs.” Also, $1 million to a crisis pregnancy center in Kansas. Their director defends them by saying, “You have to show the full range of choices.” (Or you know, tell women abortion causes breast cancer). Sounds like the same philosophy guiding the current sex education policy.

Obama Administration’s Sex-Ed Program Criticized By Both Sides Of Abstinence Debate [WP]
CDC Finds

CDC finds stark regional disparities in teen-pregnancy rates