MILWAUKEE – Wisconsin school teachers would have to promote abstinence and marriage over contraception in sex education classes, under a controversial bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday night.

The Republican-backed legislation was passed 17-15 on party lines and will now head to the GOP-dominated state Assembly -- possibly as early as Thursday, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

Democrats slammed the bill during floor debate, saying it would not give children the information needed to make responsible choices.

A state law was passed last year by Democrats, requiring schools that offer sex education to include information on contraception methods.

The new GOP-backed legislation would not ban teachers from discussing contraceptives, but would demand they stress abstaining from sex the only reliable way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies...

A new report shows that more governors are applying for abstinence education funding for their states.

According to a report released by the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), 30 governors applied for the Title V funding by the August 30 deadline. Executive director Valerie Huber tells OneNewsNow that both Republicans and Democrats accepted the funds and jointly contributed to the highest number of requests in years.

"They hold one thing in common -- and that is that they care about their young people in their state enough to put the political battles aside and institute a sex education that is going to result in the best possible health advantage to those young people in their state, and we applaud them for that," she comments...

The full results of a national study that favors abstinence education is being withheld from researchers and the public.

The taxpayer-supported survey from 2008 found that around 70 percent of parents and their teenagers believed that teens should wait until marriage to have sex. Despite release of the study's summary and its highlight at two major public health conferences last year, the Department of Health and Human Services is withholding the full results according to Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Foundation.

"When a researcher [Dr. Lisa Rue] asked the HHS for the full results, she [was told it] is not public information and it has not been released to the public and so you don't have access to it," relates Huber. "[I find that] a little incredulous since it was shared publicly at two different venues"...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Teen birth rates fell in 2008 after increasing during the two years prior, the Centers for Disease Control said today, and backers of abstinence education credit their programs as making an impact. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics reported today that the full birth rate fell two percent in 2008.

Some 4,251,095 babies were born in the United States in 2008, down two percent from the 4.317 million the year before.

The birth rate for teenagers aged 15-19 fell by 2 percent as well and the CDC says the decline resumes the long-term trend of falling teen birth rates since 1991 -- during a time when abstinence education program were gaining favor...

(CNSNews.com) -- A new report from the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) says comprehensive sex education should be provided to children as young as 10 years old but abstinence-based sex education as promoted by religious groups, such as the Catholic Church and Islamic schools, is ineffective and should not be utilized.

The IPPF’s analysis and recommendations have been denounced by some Catholic and pro-family organizations.

“Young people have the right to be fully informed about sexuality and to have access to contraceptives and other services,” said Bert Koenders, minister for Development Cooperation for the Netherlands government, in the foreword to the report, “Stand & Deliver: Sex, Health and Young People in the 21st Century.”

“These rights are enshrined in various internationally agreed human rights conventions and treaties, but -- unfortunately -- they are still not universally respected,” wrote Koenders...

A new study gives proponents of abstinence education ammunition in the struggle to receive federal funding for abstinence-centered education.

A study released in the February 2010 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that among a group of more than 660 high-risk sixth- and seventh-grade students, those who received abstinence education were more likely to wait to have sex than those who received any other kind of sex education.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, finds it interesting this study came out the same day as President Obama submitted his 2011 budget to Congress...

A bill that would overturn the abstinence-only sex education policy of the Bush administration may get the push it needs to get out of Congress, should Democrats extend their control of the House this November, some abstinence proponents claim.

The federal government currently allots funding for state sex-education curricula provided that states teach sexual abstinence until marriage. Millions of dollars have gone to states whose curricula take that approach.

A Ugandan health official is challenging popular conceptions that his continent’s devastating AIDS pandemic can only be solved through an increased use of condoms.

In the face of worldwide efforts to combat AIDS in Africa with contraceptives and treatment, the head of Uganda’s National AIDS Prevention Committee, the Rev. Sam Ruteikara, said worldwide efforts to combat AIDS in Africa with contraceptives are not as effective as the strategy that Uganda in particular has used successfully: the ABC Plan.

Funds for abstinence education programs in public schools are due to be exhausted by the end of June, but there is hope now that it will be renewed.

New York state officials have decided to divert the millions in abstinence education funding the state receives from the federal government to comprehensive sex-ed programs. The decision has pro-life groups upset because the funding has been helping programs encourage teens to avoid getting pregnant.