Kudos to President Obama for walking the walk. His 2010 budget, released yesterday, makes good on his promise to re-assert the role of science and evidence in policy, by zeroing out all Title V abstinence only funding. As study after study has shown (including our own Sexuality Research and Social Policy issue dedicated to the topic), abstinence only education policies are at best a dismal failure, and at worst dangerous for the healthy sexuality of teens. Even better, the proposed budget includes renewed funding--173 million--for more comprehensive sexuality education. Here's a clip from p. 491 of the budget:
We will be interested to see how this part of the budget plays out in Congress--or if legislators will finally acknowledge that it is time to move beyond moral agendas, and back to what evidence and research shows. We couldn't have wished for a better beginning to a re-invigorated conversation about supporting healthy sexuality. We also hope that as the President moves forward, his efforts don't focus narrowly on teen pregnancy prevention, but look at all the factors that influence, inform and shape whether or not teens are sexually healthy--a point made by our friends at SIECUS as well.
We look forward to next steps.
