Abstinence-only programs prove tenacious

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Democrats are squabbling over the future of federally funded programs that encourage teens to abstain from sex until marriage.

The abstinence-only programs, long supported by Republicans, are surviving attempts to shut them down in the Democratically controlled Congress, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

Critics call the programs ineffective because they do not include instruction in the use of condoms.

The programs, which receive about $200 million in a year in federal funding, are being supported by an unlikely ally. Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis., the House Appropriations Committee Chairman, has said he hopes to steer his panel away from contentious moral issues, the Times reported.

Foes of abstinence-only education feel abandoned, said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit policy group on sexual health.

Waxman and other Democrats long have used the abstinence-only issue to claim the Bush administration put ideology and politics ahead of science, Wagoner said.

"Now they suddenly have gone mute and silent when their own people are in power," Wagoner said. "There is an element of political hypocrisy here."