I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1653 
To provide for the reduction of adolescent pregnancy, HIV rates, and other 
sexually transmitted diseases, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 22, 2007 
Ms. LEE (for herself, Mr. SHAYS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ 
of California, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. ISRAEL, 
Mr. WU, Mr. AL GREEN of Texas, Mr. DAVIS of Alabama, Mr. FATTAH, 
Mr. EMANUEL, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. FARR, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. WOOLSEY, 
and Ms. WATSON) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To provide for the reduction of adolescent pregnancy, HIV 
rates, and other sexually transmitted diseases, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Responsible Education 
About Life Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
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(1) 
The 
American 
Medical 
Association 
(‘‘AMA’’), 
the 
American 
Nurses 
Association 
(‘‘ANA’’), the American Academy of Pediatrics 
(‘‘AAP’’), the American College of Obstetricians and 
Gynecologists (‘‘ACOG’’), the American Public 
Health Association (‘‘APHA’’), and the Society of 
Adolescent Medicine (‘‘SAM’’) support responsible 
sexuality education that includes information about 
both abstinence and contraception. 
(2) Recent scientific reports by the Institute of 
Medicine, the American Medical Association, and the 
Office on National AIDS Policy stress the need for 
sexuality education that includes messages about ab-
stinence and provides young people with information 
about contraception for the prevention of teen preg-
nancy, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted 
diseases (‘‘STDs’’). 
(3) Government-funded abstinence-only-until- 
marriage programs are precluded from discussing 
contraception except to talk about failure rates. An 
October 2006 report from the Government Account-
ability Office concluded that the current administra-
tion of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs by 
the Department of Health and Human Services 
(‘‘HHS’’) fails to require medical accuracy of the 
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vast majority of funded programs and that no reg-
ular monitoring of medical accuracy is being carried 
out by HHS. The Government Accountability Office 
also reported on the Department’s total lack of ap-
propriate and customary measurements to determine 
if funded programs are effective. In addition, a sepa-
rate letter from the Government Accountability Of-
fice in October 2006 to the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services Michael Leavitt contained a legal 
finding that the Department was in violation of Fed-
eral law, in particular section 317P(c)(2) of the 
Public Health Services Act (42 U.S.C. 247b– 
17(c)(2)), for not requiring abstinence-only-until- 
marriage programs to provide full and medically ac-
curate information about the effectiveness of 
condoms. The Department has argued that the ab-
stinence-only-until-marriage programs are exempt 
from the law; however, the Government Account-
ability Office disagrees. 
(4) A 2006 statement from the American Pub-
lic Health Association (‘‘APHA’’) ‘‘recognizes the 
importance of abstinence education, but only as part 
of a comprehensive sexuality education program . . 
. APHA calls for repealing current federal funding 
for abstinence-only programs and replacing it with 
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funding for a new Federal program to promote com-
prehensive sexuality education, combining informa-
tion about abstinence with age-appropriate sexuality 
education.’’. 
(5) The Society for Adolescent Medicine 
(‘‘SAM’’) in a 2006 position paper found the fol-
lowing: ‘‘Efforts to promote abstinence should be 
provided within health education programs that pro-
vide adolescents with complete and accurate infor-
mation about sexual health, including information 
about concepts of healthy sexuality, sexual orienta-
tion and tolerance, personal responsibility, risks of 
HIV and other STIs and unwanted pregnancy, ac-
cess to reproductive health care, and benefits and 
risks of condoms and other contraceptive methods... 
Current 
funding 
for 
abstinence-only 
programs 
should be replaced with funding for programs that 
offer comprehensive, medically accurate sexuality 
education’’. 
(6) Research shows that teenagers who receive 
sexuality education that includes discussion of con-
traception are more likely than those who receive ab-
stinence-only messages to delay sexual activity and 
to use contraceptives when they do become sexually 
active. 
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