Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs

In This Section

Since 1982, the federal government has spent over $2 billion on abstinence-only-until-marriage "sex education" programs. These programs came to a brief halt in 2010, but were reinstated in recent years, with funding for these programs increasing threefold from 2015 to 2017. And now, abstinence-only-until-marriage advocates have rebranded their programs as “sexual risk avoidance” (SRA) programs.

There are several problems with the abstinence-only-until-marriage, or SRA, approach. First, research shows that they don’t work. The fact is, sex education that includes both abstinence and birth control have a better track record of helping young people wait to have sex until they’re ready.

Even more importantly, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs withhold critical, sometimes life-saving information, while shaming young people for who they are, how they feel, or what their experiences have been. Practicing abstinence and learing how to say no to sex are important parts of any good sex education program, but they’re not the only parts.

We have to fight against abstinence-only-until-marriage/SRA programs and advocate for sex education laws and funding that support the full range of sex education topics that young people need and deserve.

Our Issues

Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board

Clergy Statement on Sex Education

Español

This website uses cookies

Planned Parenthood cares about your data privacy. We and our third-party vendors use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

Planned Parenthood cares about your data privacy. We and our third-party vendors, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our Necessary Cookies as they are deployed to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

Performance

On

We use qualitative data, including session replay, to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services.

Analytics

On

We use web analytics to help us understand user engagement with our website, trends, and overall reach of our products.