No abstinence aid is planned in budget

Republicans are expected to oppose the budget change.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed budget strips funding for programs that focus on teaching schoolchildren abstinence from sex until they're married.
The removal of 1 million in state aid to abstinence-only education marks a shift in state support for programs that advocates say serve as a national model.
The administration says it also has no plans to apply for federal money for the programs after the current funding ends Sept. 30.
"Quite frankly, I don't believe abstinence-only education programs work in the long run," Strickland told the Dayton Daily News. "There is some evidence that they may delay the onset of sexual activity, but over the long term there's not data there that show they prevent, in a statistical sense, sexual activity outside of marriage."
The governor could be headed toward a legislative showdown on the matter.
Here's the problem
"That's one where he's likely to find a lot of legislative opposition to what he's trying to do," said State Rep. Jay Hottinger, a member of the majority Republican caucus.
Ohio abstinence groups have received 23.7 million in federal dollars over the last three years, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. The state has contributed 500,000 a year, in addition to running programs through the Governor's Office on Faith-based and Community Initiatives.
"It's a significant and important shift in policy," said Earl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland and a critic of abstinence-only programs.
Rachel Sacksteder, education director at the nonprofit Elizabeth's New Life Center in Dayton, said her facility's anti-abortion, pro-abstinence message is showing results.
The center has used its 800,000 a year in federal funding to reach 23,000 youths in a six-county area. Sacksteder said teen pregnancy rates are dropping.
Statewide, teen pregnancy rates have dropped from 42.3 pregnancies for every 1,000 females ages 10 to 19 in 1997 to 33.1 in 2005.
"We do see students that have been able to change their lives," she said.
Another view
Under a 1999 Ohio law, public schools must stress in health courses that abstinence is the only surefire way to prevent pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
Tai Hethcock, director of the Abstinence Resource Centre in Dayton, said that law has contributed to Ohio's being a national leader in abstinence education.
But the programs have increasingly come under fire. A U.S. General Accounting Office report last fall said little oversight or analysis is done to see that federally funded abstinence programs are effective. And a Case Western Reserve University report in 2005 blasted Ohio's abstinence-only classes as disseminating false information about contraceptives and abortion and representing religious views as fact.
"I believe in a comprehensive approach," Strickland said. "I think, obviously, abstinence should be a part of any education curriculum, but I think young people need to be educated in ways that can protect their health and their safety."
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