Abstinence Education? No Thanks

State governments are beginning to turn down federal dollars for abstinence education programs.

That states are walking away from such funding alarms abstinence-only groups, who say dozens of nonprofit sex education groups will have to close, undermining progress against teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

States have used the money to help public and private schools with educational programs, to develop classroom instruction for nonprofits, and to pay for advertising and other media campaigns.

"There are kids who don't want to know how to put on a condom, because they don't want to have sex," said Leslee J. Unruh, founder and president of the South Dakota-based Abstinence Clearinghouse, the nation's largest network of abstinence educators. "So why can't kids who want to abstain have equal time, funding and education in the classroom as kids who are having sex?"

To critics of abstinence-based education, the policy shift addresses growing concerns that sexually active youth aren't getting access to medically accurate information about contraceptives and disease prevention.