Support Abstinence Funding in the Budget
In addition to Governor Bob McDonnell’s amendment to HB 2434 which would restrict Virginia’s health insurance exchanges under ObamaCare from covering abortion services, the Governor also added an amendment to reinsert abstinence funding in the Virginia budget. This funding was initially presented in the House budget, but in the final days of session, Senate conferees stripped it out.
This abstinence amendment will be voted on by the General Assembly this Wednesday. While it is likely the House will accept this amendment, the Senate will be an uphill climb. Contact your Senator today and urge support for Governor McDonnell’s abstinence funding in the budget.
Planned Parenthood and their allies at the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) have made it their national agenda to stop abstinence education and they consistently assail abstinence programs as being ineffective. One legislator that works closely with Planned Parenthood and NARAL carried this message saying, “the reality is with teenagers their hormones come into play, and abstinence-only doesn't always work.” Of course, if teens can be taught effective ways of postponing sexual activity it cuts into the abortion industry's profits.
But the primary arguments from abstinence opponents have been that “abstinence education doesn’t work,” “parents don’t support abstinence education,” and "it’s naive to think that teenagers can be abstinent." None of those arguments, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), are correct. In fact, a 2010 study paid for by HHS found that abstinence education is highly effective and it is widely supported by parents and teenagers.
The HHS survey released this past October found that 70 percent of parents agreed that it is “against [their] values for [their] adolescents to have sexual intercourse before marriage” and that “having sexual intercourse is something only married people should do.” Adolescent beliefs, according to the survey, were similar.
Clearly, abstinence education is not only effective, but it is widely supported among both parents and teens. Contact your Senator today and urge support of the Governor’s amendment to reinstate abstinence funding in the budget.
ACTION: Please contact your Senators immediately and urge a yes vote on Governor McDonnell’s abstinence funding amendment to the budget.
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