WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s proposal to eliminate funding for Ascend, formerly the National Abstinence Education Association, has the abstinence-only education program president and CEO, Valerie Huber, confused.
President Obama’s proposed fiscal year 2017 budget defunds Ascend because it is not “evidence-based,” but according to Huber, that’s nonsense.
“The president’s recommendation to Congress is really indefensible,” Huber told The Christian Post on Feb. 22. “To say that there is not evidence that the sexual risk avoidance approach has research behind it is just not true. If you look at how the CDC and the public health community addresses risk behaviors, any risk behaviors — whether it’s smoking or underage drinking or gang violence or a variety of other things — they always put an emphasis on giving the target audience, in this case youth, the information and the skills to avoid that behavior.
“The message is very clear. In order to achieve the best outcome you don’t smoke or don’t engage in underage drinking … the only risk behavior that they depart from that public health message is in the area of teen sex.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services noted in the budget that the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act signed into law in 2011 by Obama authorizes funding for abstinence education through the 2016 financial year, but not after that.
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