FLA lawmaker: End costly and ineffective abstinence program
January 7, 2009 at 1:43 pm by Wayne GarciaWe’re almost $3 billion underwater in the state budget, so state Sen. Nan Rich’s idea today makes a helluva lot of sense: kill $600,000 in funding for an “abstinence-only education and crisis that counsels women about abortion alternatives,” according to TBO.com:
“There is not one peer-reviewed study that says that program works,” said Rich, D-Sunrise, referring particularly to the abstinence component. “It is a dismal failure, and that was the charge from the Senate president: Look for things that don’t work, and let’s take the money and use it in critical-need areas.”
Yeah, especially given recent studies that show the ineffectiveness of chastity pledges and other such head-in-the-sand approaches to sex education.
Will this program be cut? Of course not. It is a pet project of former Gov. Jeb Bush and a fave in the right-wing House of Representatives, who resisted the Senate’s efforts to cut it in 2008. Take a gander at this from the same guy who brought you the anti-gay Amendment 2:
“The services being provided are extremely important,” said John Stemberger, head of the socially conservative Florida Family Policy Council. “One judge of civilization is how we treat the most vulnerable members of society. There’s no more vulnerable a class of citizens than the unborn.”
