my tax dollars are paying for WHAT?

Maybe I just won’t do my taxes this year. When I try to find out just what exactly my tax dollars are funding, I find out that I would prefer to live in oblivion. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

If I haven’t blogged about abstinence-only sex education before (with over 200 blog posts, it’s hard to keep track), then it should come as no surprise to you blog peeps that I don’t support it. Research shows that it doesn’t work and Americans don't support it. Additionally, kids who go through abstinence-only sex ed may wait to have sex, but in the meantime, they partake in oral sex like it’s no tomorrow. Also, when they do end up having sex (more often than not in a non-marital context), they are less likely to use condoms or any form of contraception. So yeah. Abstinence-only sex education is bad.

Now imagine being a college-aged or post-college-aged adult. What are the chances that you’ve already had sex at least once? (pretty high) What are the chances that you’re probably going to have more sex before you get married? (also high) Well, in what can only be called the biggest waste of money ever, our federal government is now funding abstinence-only sex education for ADULTS.

Under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007 and with millions of federal money (approx. $170 million) made available, money is available for abstinence-only sex education for adults. Why? Because according to the government, the change was made because more and more women between the ages of 19 and 29 are having kids out of wedlock. Wade Horn, the assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services, actually said the following: “The message is ‘It's better to wait until you're married to bear or father children.’ The only 100% effective way of getting there is abstinence.”

And while abstaining from sex until you’re married would ensure that you won’t have children until you’re married, the reality is that people are going to have sex. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over 90% of adults between the ages of 19 and 29 have already had sex. So, why would the government waste their money to get adults to abstain from sex when they’re already having sex?

Abstaining from sex until marriage is a religious concept. Why is the government forcing religion on us? Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?

I propose a new funding initiative. Take the money allotted for adult abstinence-only sex ed. and use it to provide women with better access to contraception. If the government really doesn’t want women to have kids outside of marriage, arm us with the tools to prevent pregnancy. It’s really that simple.