Santorum: Obama Defunded Abstinence Programs Because He Wants ‘People To Be In Poverty’

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

Rick Santorum criticized the Obama administration for reducing federal funding to abstinence-only programs during a town hall in Florida this morning, and claimed that the president’s decision to de-emphasize the initiatives suggests that Obama wants “people to be in poverty.” “What is this president doing,” Santorum asked, “he is deliberately misinforming the most vulnerable people in our society and targeting them toward a life that has economic potential.” Watch it:

The Department of Health and Human Services did change its policy for grant awardees, limiting how programs that receive federal dollars can teach abstinence. But those groups can continue preaching abstinence in non-federally funded initiatives, even though the evidence suggests that such programs are ineffective or “even harmful and have negative consequences by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.” Studies have not found that abstinence-only programs cut pregnancy rates, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), or even the age when sexual activity begins.