Sponsored by: Rep. David Obey (D-WI)
Summary: The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill allocates federal funds for social services, including family planning and sex education programs. The bill includes funding for Title X, the only national program dedicated solely to funding reproductive health care services for low-income women. The bill also includes funding for federal abstinence-only-until marriage sex education programs. The House subcommittee version of the bill includes a $28 million increase in Title X funding, which would be the largest increase the program has received in 25 years. The subcommittee also increases funding for an abstinence-only sex education program, the Community Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) grant, by $28 million. The Senate committee version of the bill includes an increase in funding for Title X by $16 million but decreases funding for the abstinence-only CBAE program by $28 million.
PPNT Position: PPNT supports the increase in Title X funding at the level allocated in the House subcommittee version of the appropriations bill ($28 million increase). This would be the largest increase in funding for the nation’s family planning program in the last 25 years and would bring the Title X budget to $311 million. (If funding had kept up with inflation, the program would be funded at more than $700 million.) However, we oppose any increase in funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs, as a recent federally-funded evaluation of these programs proved that they do not delay sex or decrease rates of unintended pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections. Therefore, we support the decrease in funding for the CBAE programs included in the Senate committee version of the bill.
However, we oppose any increase in funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs, as a recent federally-funded evaluation of these programs proved that they do not delay sex or decrease rates of unintended pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections. Therefore, we support the decrease in funding for the CBAE programs included in the Senate committee version of the bill.
Latest Action: 11/15/07 - Final version passed. Title X funding budget is finalized at $300 million ($17 million increase from FY 2007) and the CBAE program received no increase in funding from the FY 2007 level of $113 million. The Title X funding increase is the largest since 2000.
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