For Immediate Release:
June 6, 2006

Contact: Adrienne Verrilli at 645-468-0081

New York, NY – Today, more than 200 organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia, launched a nationwide No More Money campaign in an effort to stop federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Since 2001, when federal spending in these programs began to ramp up, a significant body of evidence has accumulated showing that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ineffective and potentially harmful. The medical community has never supported these programs and polling consistently shows that the American people reject them as well. Support for these programs on Capitol Hill has even waned, as a more comprehensive and medically accurate approach is being sought by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“For the past five years, the deck has stacked-up against abstinence-only-until-marriage programs,” said William Smith, vice president for public policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). “Now that it is clear that there is no sound research supporting these programs, no support in the public health community, and no support by the American people, we are asking Congress to stop funding these harmful programs,” Smith continued.

In 2001, a similar group of organizations asked for No New Money for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Now, the number of groups has doubled and we are all demanding No More Money for these programs. The reasons are clear:

• A 2003 Columbia University study showed that 88% of virginity pledgers had intercourse before marriage but that young people who too who took virginity pledges were 30% less likely to use contraception when they did become sexually active than their peers who had not pledged. Further research found that these young people were much less likely to get treated for a sexually transmitted disease and more likely to engage in other risky sexual activities such as anal and oral sex than their peers who had not pledged.
  
• Numerous states, including Pennsylvania, Texas, Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, and Maryland, among others, have evaluated their federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and found the programs to be ineffective. Please add any relevant state information}
  
• A 2002 Congressional review of the 13 of the most popularly used curricula in federally funded abstinence-only-until-marriage programs found that the vast majority contain egregious medical inaccuracies, unsettling gender stereotypes, and anti-abortion and anti-gay messages.
  
• A 2004 Harvard/ Kaiser/NPR national survey found that 93% of parents of junior high school students and 91% of parents of high school students support sex education that is comprehensive and part of the school curriculum.

“For far too long, these harmful programs have gone unchecked, allowing ideologically driven lawmakers to pour millions of taxpayer dollars into these programs,” Smith explained. “We intend for the No More Money campaign to lead the charge to change all that,” Smith continued.

Since 1998, close to $1 billion federal taxpayer dollars has been spent on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, almost $800 million of which has been spent since 2001. And the President had proposed another $204 million for Fiscal Year 2007.

The No More Money campaign will provide organizations at the local, state, and federal level with the information necessary to educate and mobilize their Members and other constituents about these programs. The campaign also creates easy and accessible tools for people to voice their opposition to their lawmakers at every level of government.

“As organizations committed to sound science and the health and welfare of our nation's youth, we look forward to the No More Money campaign empowering people to take action and help turn the tide away from abstinence-only-until-marriage programs,” Smith said. “The big question remains: Are policymakers listening?,” Smith concluded.

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