Republican Govs. Bob McDonnell of Virginia and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota applied for abstinence-education funding on Monday – just meeting U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Aug. 30 deadline.
The U.S. Congress and the administration had canceled all abstinence-centered program grants for the FY2010 budget, putting at risk more than 2 million students who are expected to attend 176 abstinence programs this fall.
However, CitizenLink and pro-family organizations alerted people that the administration had refused to release a pivotal abstinence study. After protest, HHS posted the study online.
The abstinence study’s executive summary indicated that:
•70 percent of parents agreed with the statement: “It is against your values for your adolescents to have sexual intercourse before marriage.
•70 percent of parents agreed with the statement: “Having sexual intercourse is something only married people should do.”
•Adolescents had similar responses for the two questions.
Chad Hills, sexual health and abstinence policy analyst for CitizenLink, said Americans deserve answers from President Obama and his administration about its lack of transparency of the survey results.
“Why were the results of this publicly funded national survey withheld from the public, researchers and policymakers?” said Hills. “And, why is our elected, “representative” form of government choosing not to reflect the desires of its constituents in this instance? We’re submitting another Freedom of Information Act rquest to the HHS to collect more information about this suspicious delay.”
