Which view is in the ascendancy?

There is no doubt that abstinence-based approaches have gathered political and financial support in the United States where they have become strongly associated with the moral and religious inclinations of the Republican Party and the Presidency of George W. Bush 54 55.

As a result, the current situation is that of the $1.5 billion spent on abstinence education since 1982 more than 80% has been spent under the current Presidency 56. Approximately $204 million was granted in the President's 2007 Budget to abstinence-only education programmes 57.

The bulk of this funding has been available annually since 1996 when an amendment to health and welfare legislation affecting support to families initiated an annual cycle of federal funding to abstinence education 58. From this point funding became available to states if they matched the Government grant with some money of their own. This money then became available to organisations through several funding strands if they agreed to use it for work that meets the following eight characteristics defining abstinence education as that which:

* Has as its exclusive purpose teaching the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity;
* Teaches abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard for all school-age children;
* Teaches that abstinence from sexual activity is the only certain way to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and other associated health problems;
* Teaches that a mutually faithful, monogamous heterosexual relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of human sexual activity;
* Teaches that sexual activity outside of the context of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects;
* Teaches that bearing children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child's parents, and society;
* Teaches young people how to reject sexual advances and how alcohol and drug use increases vulnerability to sexual advances; and
* Teaches the importance of attaining self-sufficiency before engaging in sexual activity.

The situation is the UK is rather different in that abstinence education has no support in public policy and receives no funding from government, although there is an expectation that sex educators in schools will emphasise the potential benefits of delaying or abstaining from sexual activity alongside providing information about contraception, sexual health services, sexuality and gender issues 59.