The federal Title V abstinence education program expired Saturday after the House did not reauthorize it last week, the Washington Times reports (Wetzstein, Washington Times, 6/30).

Title V, administered by HHS' Administration for Children and Families, distributes funds based on a formula favoring states with more low-income children. To receive Title V funds, states must adhere to certain requirements, including barring teachers from discussing contraception and requiring them to say that sex within marriage is "the expected standard of sexual activity." Many state governors have said the grants place too many restrictions on the curricula. California, Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have rejected Title V funds. President Bush has asked Congress to appropriate $191 million for the program for fiscal year 2008, an increase of $28 million from FY 2007 funding levels.

Congressional Democratic leaders in May said they will not reauthorize Title V. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) -- chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the program -- said it has not proven to be effective (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/17).

According to the Times, Title V traditionally has been reauthorized with the Transitional Medical Assistance program, which provides Medicaid coverage to families leaving welfare. The Senate last week reauthorized the two programs until Sept. 30, but the House did not act on the measure after some House members objected to a financial offset for the TMA program, the Times reports.

Advocates of comprehensive sex education are increasing efforts to end funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, the Times reports. According to the Times, some members of Congress are seeking to unlink Title V from the TMA program so that they could be reauthorized separately, but other members have rejected the idea. Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Wednesday said, "I know that there are people who have real questions about the effectiveness of the abstinence grants attached to this program -- I'm one of those people -- but TMA is too important in the lives of too many people for us to turn our backs on it."

According to the Times, some unnamed Capitol Hill sources said that Congress after the July 4 recess likely will extend the two programs until Sept. 30. Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs for the Family Research Council, said that any extension likely would be only temporary (Washington Times, 6/30).

Effect on Alabama Programs
In related news, officials for Alabama's eight federally funded abstinence-only education programs recently said they will have to close or scale down some abstinence education programs if Title V is not reauthorized, the AP/Montgomery Advertiser reports. Susan Stewart, director of the Alabama Department of Public Health's abstinence-until-marriage education program, said the state will lose more than $950,000 annually if Title V is not reauthorized. Stewart said that some of the state's eight community-based programs -- which reach about 42,000 students ages 10 to 19 in 38 of the state's 67 counties -- will be able to function with reduced programming without federal funds, but she added that other programs will be closed (Hunter, AP/Montgomery Advertiser, 7/2).

Many critics of abstinence-only programs have cited a study, released in April by Mathematica Policy Research, that found abstinence-only sex education programs are not effective in preventing or delaying teenagers from having sexual intercourse (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 4/16). Stewart questioned the study, saying that it only examined four abstinence programs nationwide and that Alabama has had positive results. According to the state health department, pregnancies among girls ages 10 to 17 in the state decreased from 5,462 in 1999 to 3,955 in 2005. According to the AP/Advertiser, Alabama began implementing Title V programs in 1998.

AIDS Alabama Director Kathie Hiers said that the state's achievements cannot be attributed entirely to abstinence-only programs and that some of the curriculum is not accurate. "I don't want any good programs to go belly-up, but I believe in abstinence-only education only when it is not misleading," Renee Williams -- who runs Sex & Family Education in Homewood, Ala. -- said that some programs will be able to continue with private funds if Title V is not reauthorized but added that her group will cut its programs by about 50% without Title V funding. "Our students across the country need to hear that sex is a choice and that they have an opportunity to choose," Williams said (AP/Montgomery Advertiser, 7/2).

APM's "Marketplace" on Monday reported on Title V's expiration. The segment includes comments from Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Christine Kim of the Heritage Foundation's domestic policy program and high school students (Cohen, "Marketplace," APM, 7/2). Audio and a transcript of the segment are available online.