Immorality of Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

That's the title of my latest Huffington Post blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/the-immorality-of-teachin_b_173872.html

It expands on Wednesday's blog here on the 925 clergy who joined with the Religious Institute to urge the Obama administration to end federal funding for abstinence only until marriage education.

It's been a big week for news about teenage sexuality:

The 2009 budget just passed had the first decrease in abstinence only funding since the program began., but still continued all three funding programs.

It was Abstinence Day on Capitol Hill. I read that the National Abstinence Clearinghouse brought 500 teen virgins to Congress yesterday. (I couldn't help but think of the first chapters of the book of Esther that I reread this week in observance of Purim.) I can't help but wonder how many of those young people will be sexually active before they are 20 and how they will look back on this day.

And we learned late today that Bristol Palin joined the 92% of teen mothers who don't end up marrying their baby's fathers. No real surprise here.

We can and must do better for the nation's teenagers. Read more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-debra-haffner/the-immorality-of-teachin_b_173872.html