Govt. Tells Singles No Sex Till You're 30
Updated 5:17 PM ET October 31, 2006
If you're single and in your 20s, the federal government wants you to steer clear of sex. For the first time, the federal government is telling states they can use grant money to encourage adults as old as 29 to remain celibate until marriage. Those are the new rules of the Department of Health and Human Services' $50 million Abstinence Education Program. HHS officials say it's not a requirement -- just another option for states to combat what they call an alarming rise in out-of-wedlock births. A record 1.5 million babies were born to single mothers in 2004, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. More than half of them were born to women in their early 20s. Critics of the new rules, such as James Wagoner, president of a group whose top goal is a "society that views sexuality as normal and healthy," say such statistics illustrate that most people in their 20s are already having sex. Wagoner's group, Advocates for Youth, argues that it's futile to try to sell 20-somethings on chastity. He says birth control is a smarter way to prevent pregnancies. "This is a clear signal that they're using these resources -- taxpayer dollars -- to promote an ideological agenda," Wagoner says. "It has nothing to do with public health." The guidelines let states use federal grants to "identify groups" of people between the ages of 12 to 29 who "are most likely to bear children out of wedlock." After identifying the groups, targeted programs can then "support decisions to delay sexual activity until marriage." "Those who delay sex until marriage avoid out-of-wedlock births in both their teen and adult years," the guidelines read. "They decrease the likelihood of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease. They reduce the risk of having children who live absent from their fathers or who grow up poor." "Whatever happened to conservatives that were against big government," Wagoner asks. "If this isn't a waste of taxpayer dollars, what is?"
