[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 578 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 578

     To amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate the 
                   abstinence-only education program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 15, 2011

Mr. Lautenberg (for himself, Mr. Franken, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Begich, Mr. 
   Wyden, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Kerry, and Mrs. Murray) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                                Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate the 
                   abstinence-only education program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete 
Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act of 2011''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The United States has one of the highest teen pregnancy 
        rates in the developed world. Between 1990 and 2005, the United 
        States teenage pregnancy rate declined 41 percent. For the 
        first time in more than a decade, the rate rose 3 percent in 
        2006. At the same time, teens were receiving less information 
        about contraception in schools and their use of contraceptives 
        was declining.
            (2) While young people in the United States aged 15 to 25 
        make up only \1/4\ of the sexually active population, they 
        contract about \1/2\ of the 19,000,000 sexually transmitted 
        infections (STIs) which occur annually. Young people ages 13 to 
        29 account for nearly \1/3\ of the estimated 56,300 new HIV 
        infections each year. Every hour, 1 young person is infected 
        with HIV. In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention estimated that 1 in 4 young women between the ages 
        of 14 and 19 and nearly 1 in 2 African-American young women are 
        infected with at least one of the four most common STIs.
            (3) Abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been 
        discredited by a wide body of evidence, including most recently 
        in a congressionally mandated study in 2007 which found these 
        programs ineffective in stopping or delaying teen sex, reducing 
        the number of reported sexual partners, reducing reported rates 
        of pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections, or otherwise 
        beneficially impacting young people's sexual behavior. The 
        Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences 
        recommends the termination of such programs because they 
        represent ``poor fiscal and public health policy.''
            (4) Leading medical and public health professional groups, 
        including the American Medical Association, the American 
        Academy of Pediatrics, the Society of Adolescent Health and 
        Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and 
        Gynecologists, the American Nurses Association, the American 
        Public Health Association, and the American Psychological 
        Association, oppose an abstinence-only-until-marriage approach 
        as antithetical to the principles of science. These 
        organizations all stress the need for sexuality education that 
        includes messages about abstinence and also provide young 
        people with information about contraception for the prevention 
        of teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs.
            (5) Since 1996, the United States has spent over 
        $1,500,000,000 in Federal funding on abstinence-only-until-
        marriage programs that fail to teach teens how to prevent 
        unintended pregnancy or STIs, including HIV. Particularly 
        during the Nation's worst economic disaster since the Great 
        Depression, government funding should only support evidence-
        based programs.
            (6) According to the results of a 2005-2006 nationally 
        representative survey of United States adults published in the 
        Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, more than 8 in 10 
        (82 percent) of those polled, regardless of political ideology, 
        support comprehensive sex education that is medically accurate 
        and age-appropriate and includes information about both 
        abstinence and contraception for protection against unintended 
        pregnancy and STIs, including HIV.
            (7) There is strong evidence that more comprehensive 
        approaches to sex education help young people both to withstand 
        the pressures to have sex too soon and to have healthy, 
        responsible, and mutually protective relationships when they do 
        become sexually active. More comprehensive sex education has 
        been found to be effective in delaying sexual intercourse, 
        increasing contraceptive use, and reducing the number of 
        partners among teens.
            (8) Strong evidence indicates that sex education programs 
        that promote both abstinence and the use of contraception does 
        not increase sexual behavior. Studies show that when teens are 
        educated about and have access to contraception, levels of 
        contraception use at first intercourse increase while levels of 
        sex stay the same.
            (9) Teens who receive sex education that includes both 
        abstinence and contraception are more likely than those who 
        receive abstinence-only-until-marriage messages to delay sexual 
        activity and use contraception when they do become sexually 
        active. Research from the United States shows that teens who 
        practice contraception consistently in their first sexual 
        relationship are more likely to continue doing so than those 
        who use no method or who use a method inconsistently.
            (10) The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) 
        funds programs that are required to provide information on both 
        abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy 
        and STIs, including HIV/AIDS, with a substantial emphasis on 
        both abstinence and contraceptive use. Programs must also 
        address adulthood preparation topics such as healthy 
        relationships, adolescent development, financial literacy, 
        educational and career success, and healthy life skills. Funded 
        programs are required to be evidence-based or replicate 
        elements of evidence-based programs that have been proven on 
        the basis of rigorous scientific research to change behavior.

SEC. 3. ELIMINATION OF ABSTINENCE-ONLY EDUCATION PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Title V of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 701 
et seq.) is amended by striking section 510.
    (b) Rescission.--Amounts appropriated for each of fiscal years 2010 
and 2011 under section 510(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
710(d)) (as in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this 
Act) that are unobligated as of the date of enactment of this Act are 
rescinded.
    (c) Reprogram of Eliminated Abstinence-Only Funds for the Personal 
Responsibility Education Program (PREP).--Section 513(f) of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 713(f)) is amended by striking ``for each of 
fiscal years 2010 through 2014'' and inserting ``for fiscal year 2010, 
$75,000,000 increased by an amount equal to the unobligated portion of 
funds appropriated for each of fiscal years 2010 and 2011 under section 
510(d) that are rescinded under subsection (b), and $125,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2012 through 2014''.
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