Abstinence Education Pros And Cons

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The government spends over $170 million each year in subsidies and federally funds for abstinence only sex education programs across the nation (Beh and Diamond). There are three main groups that contribute financially to abstinence programs in America (CITE THIS). The first being the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFLA) of 1981, which was founded in opposition to the Title X Family Planning Program which provides contraception for low income families. The AFLA is the smallest monetary contributor, but is attributed with providing the ground work for abstinence programs at a federal level. Title V came about in 1996 as a stricter version of AFLA. The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act (TANF) contained Title V which provided grants to states for enacting abstinence only programs in their schools. To receive the funding Title V offers, the curriculum must consist of a conservative government designed eight point system (Watkins, “Abstinence Education Not Effective”). While the schools aren't required to cover all eight points under Title V, they cannot go directly against any of them. The last and largest contributor began in the year 2000 and is known as Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE).

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