OUR ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS

Access to Health Services and Information

As part of our mission to make all communities healthy places for women and girls, Chicago Foundation for Women participates in statewide and national advocacy to end public funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and ensure that young people receive responsible sexual health education. Read more about the abstinence-only-until-marriage issue in our Policy Brief below.

BREAKING NEWS: In his 2010 budget, President Obama eliminated all federal funding for failed federal abstinence-only-until-marriage sexual health programs.Read more in our May 8, 2009 Action Alert.

POLICY BRIEF

Illinois Should Stop Supporting
Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

Our Vision
Policy Analysis
Adolescent Health Statistics
Title V Funding
Programs are ineffective, insufficient and inaccurate
Programs particularly harm girls
Illinois sexual health education policy
Funding for comprehensive sexual health education
Advocacy Resources
Get Involved: Action Steps
Footnotes

Our Vision

Chicago Foundation for Women believes that sexuality is a fundamental, life-long part of the human experience. Young people deserve to learn about sexual health in positive ways that respect their humanity. We believe that young women are stronger, healthier and more able to reach their full potential when all youth have access to well-rounded, comprehensive services and information about their health, including reproductive and sexual health.

Our educational and public health systems share responsibility with parents to provide sexual health education to all Illinois young people. Adolescent sexual health education should be comprehensive, medically accurate and age-appropriate.

Policy Analysis

Unfortunately, our national and state public policies are not living up to Chicago Foundation for Women’s vision for adolescent health. They are failing to address the true needs of girls and young women today.

Statistics show that young people need better access to health information and services.
- Illinois has the 20th highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation¹, and nationwide teens and young adults account for nearly half of all sexually transmitted infections.²
- Read more about the first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women that found that one in four were infected, and nearly half the African-American girls were infected.
- 2008 research of Illinois sex education teachers found that 1 in 3 were not covering the four basic topics to be rated “comprehensive,” and that the most common reason for these omissions was that the topic “was not in the curriculum.” Of the teachers surveyed, 74 percent were using abstinence-only curricula. Read more in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Title V federal funding is granted to states for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.Title V funds are highly restrictive. Programs funded by Title V are required to "meaningfully represent"³ eight principles that shame young people and deny them critical health information that could help them make healthier decisions. One of the principles is that "a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity."⁴ The practical impact of this in the classroom is to ignore or shame gay and lesbian students as well as children born in nontraditional families.
Illinois accepts Title V funding.
- Who accepts it (UPDATED): Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich accepted $1.8 million in federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funding each year he was in office, through FY 2008.⁵
- Who administers it: The Illinois Abstinence Education Program within the state’s Department of Human Services (IDHS) coordinates the federal Title V dollars Illinois receives and makes awards to local community groups, county public health departments and crisis pregnancy centers.
- How is it spent: In 2007, the Program spent more than $2.8 million and provided grants to 30 community groups around the state.⁶The 2008 list of IDHS grantees includes five Title V-funded crisis pregnancy centers. Learn more about a recent federal investigation into crisis pregnancy centers. UPDATED: Read the 2008 profile of abstinence-only-until marriage programs in Illinois, courtesy of SIECUS. Download an analysis of abstinence-only-until-marriage curricula being used in Illinois schools and see specific examples of how these curricula are promoting gender stereotypes and misleading young people.
Abstinence-only curricula have been proven to be ineffective in achieving their stated goals of ending teen sexual activity. Download the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. report from 2007 that showed that students receiving federally funded abstinence-only curricula did not delay sexual activity or limit their number of sexual partners. NEW: Read a review of studies about sexual health education programs from the September 2008 issue of Sexuality Research & Social Policy, reporting that "most abstinence programs did not delay initiation of sex."
Abstinence-only curricula are insufficient and medically inaccurate. For example, programs receiving Title V dollars are prohibited from discussing condoms or contraception⁷ —except their failure rates, which are often exaggerated or misrepresented. Congressional oversight has shown the serious flaws in abstinence-only curricula nationwide. Read a federal review of abstinence-only curricula prepared for U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), and a 2008 article from the Sexuality Research & Social Policy journal that examines the medical inaccuracies within selected abstinence-only curricula.
Abstinence-only curricula harm girls and young women. According to an analysis by Legal Momentum, abstinence-only programs present unique threats to young women, who most often bear the burdens of unintended pregnancy. Many abstinence-only-until-marriage programs promote myths about sexual assault. They present outdated gender and racial stereotypes as “truth.” In addition, abstinence-only curricula exclude information about STI testing and treatment which disproportionately affects women and girls who, because of their physiology, are more prone to STIs. Many of the programs provide false, misleading or biased information about contraception and abortion, often meant to shame girls for sexual activity. Read more more about this gender analysis from Legal Momentum.
On Illinois sexual health education policy: Illinois’ school code requires schools that provide health education to cover the "social responsibilities of family life, including sexual abstinence until marriage, prevention and control of disease…and the prevention, transmission and spread of AIDS."⁸ Illinois’ Sex Education Act authorizes the Division of Sex Education to establish "educational programs designed to provide to pupils…wholesome and comprehensive education in regard to the emotional, psychological…and social responsibility aspects of family life and sexual relations, and the dangers of illicit sexual relations."⁹ Training for health education teachers is encouraged, not mandated.¹⁰
Comprehensive sexual health education programs need more public funding. Neither the federal nor Illinois governments designate resources to provide responsible sexual health education to young people. The federal government pours over $178 million a year into abstinence-only programs through Title V, the Adolescent Family Life Act and the Community Based Abstinence Education program.¹¹

Advocacy Resources

National Momentum: By June 2008, 17 states had rejected federal Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage dollars.¹² By August 2008, the number grew to 25 – and 80 percent of those did so because abstinence-only-until-marriage programs are ineffective. NEW: Read the SIECUS fact sheet on the new states rejecting Title V and a September 2008 study of the motivations behind selected states’ decisions to accept or reject Title V funding.
Media Engagement: Editorial boards around the country are speaking out. Read what the Chicago Sun-Times has to say, and read the latest Associated Press story on the issue. NEW: An article in Time Magazine explores what a comprehensive sexual health education program looks like and how it is effective.
Research: Research has repeatedly confirmed that a more comprehensive approach to sexual health education leads to better health outcomes for youth. Check out Emerging Answers 2007 or the 2008 research from the Journal of Adolescent Health. NEW: Read an independent research firm's evaluation that Cleveland public school students benefited from medically acccurate age appropriate sexual health information.
Public Opinion: Illinois parents, educators and public health experts support implementation of comprehensive health education programming. Read the 2004 Illinois research commissioned by the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health and download 2007 Journal of Adolescent Health research about parents' attitudes supporting comprehensive approaches to sexual health education. Read the August 2008 poll results showing that 93 percent of adults surveyed support teaching birth control in high school.
Statewide Advocacy: The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health is leading our campaign--we are mobilized and determined to add Illinois to the list of states that have rejected restrictive abstinence-only dollars. Read our letter of support, signed by a growing list of more than 60 public health experts, providers and educators. Read SIECUS's Community Action Kit for more strategies for public outreach on this issue.

Get Involved: Action Steps

Tell the Illinois Governor and the Illinois congressional delegation to reject Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage funds.
Distribute campaign postcards in your community.
Support the Reproductive Health and Access Act (HB 2354) which would require Illinois public schools to offer responsible sexual education programs. (The bill was not called for a vote in the spring 2009 legislative session but will be reintroduced.) You can also sign our online petition in support of the bill.
Find out what your community school is teaching young people about sexual health, and demand a comprehensive approach.
Learn about No More Money, the national advocacy campaign to eliminate Congressional spending on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs.
Visit the Advocates for Youth website to learn more about national efforts to advocate for positive, healthy approaches to adolescent sexual health.
Ask your federal legislators to sponsor the Responsible Education About Life Act which would provide money to support comprehensive sexual health education programs.

Last Updated on May 5, 2009.

Footnotes

Guttmacher Institute, U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics, updated September 2006.
Guttmacher Institute, Facts on Sexually Transmitted Infections in the United States, August 2006.
FY07 Program Announcement, Section 510 Abstinence Education Program CFDA #93.235, US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, August 2006.
42 U.S.C. 710 Section 510 (b)(2) (D)
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Illinois 2008 State Profile. (PDF)
Illinois Department of Human Services website, Abstinence Education Program Fact Sheet.
FY07 Program Announcement, Section 510 Abstinence Education Program CFDA #93.235, US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, August 2006.
105 ILCS 110/3
105 ILCS 130/4
105 ILCS 110/4
SIECUS Fact Sheet, “Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Funding,” 2007.
California (has never applied for Title V), Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Montana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, Arizona and Iowa