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t has been a year and a half since Congress created the new half billion dollar abstinence-only-untilmarriage education entitlement program. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have applied for their portion of funds. It is only now that the picture of the state programs is taking shape.
It appears that there may be a silver lining for supporters of sexuality education-many states appear to be doing their best to avoid medically inaccurate, fear-based abstinenceonly-until-marriage education. However, the dark cloud surrounding this silver lining is that antisexuality education forces are exerting full-scale political pressure to bring states' efforts in line with their ultraconservative political ideology.
SNAPSHOT OF STATE PLANS
In early November 1997, the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services gave the go-ahead to states to implement the abstnence-only education programs outlined in their applications. At press time, SIECUS has collected the abstinence-onlyuntil-marriage education applications from 48 states (all except Georgia, Oregon, and the District of Columbia).
It is common practice that the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau will ask states to make modifications in their plans as a condition of application approval. At this time, SIECUS has been unable to obtain any information about revisions requested of the states by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, so those modifications are not reflected in SIECUS's preliminary review of state plans in this article. (SIECUS will publish revised accountings when it obtains the information.)
State target audience. States are targeting youthespecially those under 14 years of age-rather than all unmarried people and many are letting local agencies determine the target audience. (See "States' Target Ages for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs" on page 23.) Other states are targeting "early" or "young adolescents" and others will "encourage" or "give special attention" to this group.
Program components. Some states plan to partner with other in-state teen pregnancy, health/education, and youth agencies, and most plan to employ multiple approaches such as media campaigns; grants to youth-serving organizations, local school districts/health departments; and supplements to existing efforts. Specifically: 32 states plan to implement a media campaign-from billboards to public service announcements. (See Map 1.) 40 states plan to make grants to entities such as youth and community-based organizations. (See Map 2.)...