Bill Would Harm Abstinence Education

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Bill Would Harm Abstinence Education

Special Report - August 9, 2007
In a move that is causing alarm among pro-life advocates and abstinence education supporters, the U.S. House approved legislation on August 1 that would further erode the rights of the unborn and undermine federal abstinence education funding. H.R. 3162—Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 reauthorizes the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), an initiative designed to assist children whose parents earn a low income but who are ineligible for Medicaid. Hidden in the broader measure are provisions that would devalue unborn human life and potentially divert federal abstinence education dollars to contraception-based “family planning” programs. H.R. 3162 passed the House 225 to 204. A companion bill, H.R. 976, passed the Senate 68 to 31 on August 2.

In 2002, the Bush administration issued a declaration known as the “Unborn Child Rule,” which defined the life of a child as beginning at conception. Previously, SCHIP had contained language protecting both the mother and unborn child, but the new bill eliminates the term “unborn child,” leading pro-lifers to fear that the provision could result in taxpayer funded abortions. An amendment to the Senate version of the children’s health care bill sponsored by Senator Wayne Allard (R–CO) would have reinserted protections for both pregnant women and unborn children, but it failed 50 to 49 on July 31.

While extending the federal government’s Title V Abstinence Education Program for another two years, H.R. 3162 allows funds previously earmarked for abstinence education to be used for “comprehensive” sex education programs. Title V, which is overseen by the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, allocates $50 million annually to states to encourage abstinence until marriage. According to Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, the bill “effectually takes away any monies that are totally devoted to abstinence education [and] opens up funding so that states are allowed to decide whether to fund abstinence education or comprehensive sex education.” Unlike H.R. 3162, the Senate version does not contain the same language allowing abstinence funds to be diverted to fund contraception-based programs.

Despite Congress’ August recess, Huber predicts that the Senate and House will try to reconcile differences between the two bills and come up with a compromise version before the current SCHIP expires in September.