Hatch Lauds Bipartisan Vote On Abstinence Education

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), member of the Senate Finance Committee, today hailed last night's committee vote for his amendment to reinstate funding for abstinence education.

"Abstinence education works," said Hatch. "My amendment restores a vital funding stream so that teens and parents have the option to participate in programs that have demonstrated success in reducing teen sexual activity and, consequently, teen pregnancies.

"I laud the Senate Finance Committee for its strong bipartisan vote to ensure valuable programs such as these continue to help teach our children about healthy lifestyle choices."

Hatch's amendment reinstates $50 million a year in abstinence funding through Title V state block grant programs. Traditionally, abstinence education funding was extended along with funding for the Transitional Medical Assistance or TMA program, which extends Medicaid to families struggling to leave welfare, but President Obama zeroed it out in his budget proposal to Congress in order to spend the money on his other priorities.

Hatch continued, "My first choice would be to not have the federal government involved in any way in these types of education programs and leave these discussions in the proper environment of the home with family members. However, if the federal government is going to spend money on educating people about sexual decisions, the absence of an abstinence only education program has negative health consequences for our nation's most vulnerable citizens: teenage pregnancy is a leading contributor to poverty, which in turn leads to poor health outcomes for mothers and children; sexually active teens are more likely to experience mental health issues such as depression or attempted suicide; and sexually active teens are more likely to suffer health consequences such as increased rates of infection with sexually transmitted diseases.

"I am greatly pleased with last night's vote and will fight to have the same outcome once this amendment makes it to the Senate floor."

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