Maine refuses federal sex-ed funding

Maine has joined California and Pennsylvania in refusing federal sex-ed funding because of strict guidelines on how the money can be spent. The funding - about $160,000 - comes with the requirement that it must be spent on abstinence-only sex education.

Over the past 20 years, Maine has reduced its teen pregnancy rate by nearly 50 percent by teaching contraception and abstinence. But since the Bush administration took office, the successful programs were sidelined to make way for the White House-approved message. Maine's public health director, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, said, "We were in a position of having to turn our backs on proven programs that we have been using for quite a while, versus accepting these (new) standards that we think may actually be harmful to our children."

Harmful to our children? How can it be harmful to our children to tell them, "Don't have sex, don't have sex, don't have sex"? Doesn't that work just as well as telling them not to think of an elephant?

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051129/maine_abstains.php