In his latest budget proposal, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D) has eliminated more than $1 million in state aid that would have been tied to abstinence-only sex education. The funding, which is part of the federal Title V abstinence education grant program, is distributed among states with a high number of children in low-income families and requires — among other things — no mention of contraception and that teachers must say that sex within marriage is “the expected standard of sexual activity.”
The newly elected governor said of his decision, “I don’t believe abstinence-only education programs work in the long run. There is some evidence that they may delay the onset of sexual activity, but over the long term, there’s not data there that show they prevent, in a statistical sense, sexual activity outside of marriage,” the AP reports.
California, Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have also rejected federal funds tied to abstinence-only programs.
