I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1085 
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate the abstinence- 
only education program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 15, 2011 
Ms. LEE of California (for herself, Ms. DEGETTE, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. FARR, 
Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HOLT, Mr. JACKSON 
of Illinois, Mrs. LOWEY, Mrs. MALONEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. MOORE, 
Mr. MORAN, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OLVER, Ms. PINGREE of Maine, Mr. RAN-
GEL, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. STARK, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. HONDA, Mrs. 
CHRISTENSEN, Mrs. CAPPS, Ms. LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California, Mr. 
NADLER, and Mr. CONYERS) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to 
the Committee on Appropriations, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend title V of the Social Security Act to eliminate 
the abstinence-only education program. 
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 ‘‘Repealing Ineffective 
and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act of 
2011’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The United States has one of the highest 
teen pregnancy rates in the developed world. Be-
tween 1990 and 2005, the United States teenage 
pregnancy rate declined 41 percent. For the first 
time in more than a decade, the rate rose 3 percent 
in 2006. At the same time, teens were receiving less 
information about contraception in schools and their 
use of contraceptives was declining. 
(2) While young people in the United States 
aged 15 to 25 make up only 1⁄4 of the sexually active 
population, they contract about 1⁄2 of the 19,000,000 
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) which occur 
annually. Young people ages 13 to 29 account for 
nearly 1⁄3 of the estimated 56,300 new HIV infec-
tions each year. Every hour, 1 young person is in-
fected with HIV. In 2008, the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention estimated that 1 in 4 young 
women between the ages of 14 and 19 and nearly 1 
in 2 African-American young women are infected 
with at least one of the four most common STIs. 
(3) 
Abstinence-only-until-marriage 
programs 
have been discredited by a wide body of evidence, in-
cluding most recently in a congressionally mandated 
study in 2007 which found these programs ineffec-
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tive in stopping or delaying teen sex, reducing the 
number of reported sexual partners, reducing re-
ported rates of pregnancy or sexually transmitted in-
fections, or otherwise beneficially impacting young 
people’s sexual behavior. The Institute of Medicine 
of the National Academy of Sciences recommends 
the termination of such programs because they rep-
resent ‘‘poor fiscal and public health policy’’. 
(4) Leading medical and public health profes-
sional groups, including the American Medical Asso-
ciation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the So-
ciety of Adolescent Health and Medicine, the Amer-
ican College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the 
American Nurses Association, the American Public 
Health Association, and the American Psychological 
Association, oppose an abstinence-only-until-mar-
riage approach as antithetical to the principles of 
science. These organizations all stress the need for 
sexuality education that includes messages about ab-
stinence and also provide young people with informa-
tion about contraception for the prevention of teen 
pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and other STIs. 
(5) Since 1996, the United States has spent 
over $1,500,000,000 in Federal funding on absti-
nence-only-until-marriage programs that fail to 
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teach teens how to prevent unintended pregnancy or 
STIs, including HIV. Particularly during the Na-
tion’s worst economic disaster since the Great De-
pression, government funding should only support 
evidence-based programs. 
(6) According to the results of a 2005–2006 
nationally representative survey of United States 
adults published in the Archives of Pediatric & Ado-
lescent Medicine, more than 8 in 10 (82 percent) of 
those polled, regardless of political ideology, support 
comprehensive sex education that is medically accu-
rate and age-appropriate and includes information 
about both abstinence and contraception for protec-
tion against unintended pregnancy and STIs, includ-
ing HIV. 
(7) There is strong evidence that more com-
prehensive approaches to sex education help young 
people both to withstand the pressures to have sex 
too soon and to have healthy, responsible, and mutu-
ally protective relationships when they do become 
sexually active. More comprehensive sex education 
has been found to be effective in delaying sexual 
intercourse, increasing contraceptive use, and reduc-
ing the number of partners among teens. 
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(8) Strong evidence indicates that sex education 
programs that promote both abstinence and the use 
of contraception does not increase sexual behavior. 
Studies show that when teens are educated about 
and have access to contraception, levels of contracep-
tion use at first intercourse increase while levels of 
sex stay the same. 
(9) Teens who receive sex education that in-
cludes both abstinence and contraception are more 
likely than those who receive abstinence-only-until- 
marriage messages to delay sexual activity and use 
contraception when they do become sexually active. 
Research from the United States shows that teens 
who practice contraception consistently in their first 
sexual relationship are more likely to continue doing 
so than those who use no method or who use a 
method inconsistently. 
(10) The Personal Responsibility Education 
Program (PREP) funds programs that are required 
to provide information on both abstinence and con-
traception for the prevention of pregnancy and STIs, 
including HIV/AIDS, with a substantial emphasis on 
both abstinence and contraceptive use. Programs 
must also address adulthood preparation topics such 
as healthy relationships, adolescent development, fi-
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nancial literacy, educational and career success, and 
healthy life skills. Funded programs are required to 
be evidence-based or replicate elements of evidence- 
based programs that have been proven on the basis 
of rigorous scientific research to change behavior. 
SEC. 3. ELIMINATION OF ABSTINENCE-ONLY EDUCATION 
PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Title V of the Social Security Act 
(42 U.S.C. 701 et seq.) is amended by striking section 
510. 
(b) RESCISSION.—Amounts appropriated for each of 
fiscal years 2010 and 2011 under section 510(d) of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 710(d)) (as in effect on 
the day before the date of enactment of this Act) that are 
unobligated as of the date of enactment of this Act are 
rescinded. 
(c) REPROGRAM OF ELIMINATED ABSTINENCE-ONLY 
FUNDS FOR THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY EDUCATION 
PROGRAM (PREP).—Section 513(f) of the Social Security 
Act (42 U.S.C. 713(f)) is amended by striking ‘‘for each 
of fiscal years 2010 through 2014’’ and inserting ‘‘for fis-
cal year 2010, $75,000,000 increased by an amount equal 
to the unobligated portion of funds appropriated for each 
of fiscal years 2010 and 2011 under section 510(d) that 
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are rescinded under subsection (b), and $125,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2012 through 2014’’. 
Æ 
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