The health care reform bill pending in the U.S. Senate includes $50 million for programs that teach youths to delay having sex, widely called “abstinence-only” programs. I wrote about this issue for EdWeek weeks ago after a bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee authorized funding for such programs. The health care legislation approved by the U.S. House of Representatives includes funding only for comprehensive sex education programs, which emphasize teaching about contraceptives.
On Sunday, the Washington Post published a story saying that the funding for programs that stress abstinence has survived in the current Senate bill to reform health care.