Rejected: Federal Funding For Abstinence

There’s a first time for everything. And when it comes to federal funding for teaching abstinence programs, the pun is intended. In what feels like an unprecedented protest, more than half the states in the country are turning down offers of national tax money to teach teens abstinence. Just this week, Iowa and Arizona added their names to the long list of states staying, “no, thank you!” Only 28 states still accept the cash to encourage chastity. You’d think a president named Bush would at least know how to talk about it, but alas, his plan to tell students to stay virgins is getting more rejected than a pubescent boy. As Elke Shaw-Tulloch of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says, “There was mounting evidence the abstinence programs weren’t proving to be effective.” Idaho alone saw an increase in underage pregnancy over the past two years after they tried to tell teens keeping it in their pants was the only option rather than explaining the facts. Luckily, in the case of America’s future crotches, money may talk, but knowledge is power. [Huffington Post]