Has Arlen Specter Abandoned Abstinence Education?

The Raw Politics Of Abstinence Eucation



Between 2003 and 2009, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter obtained nearly $10 million in earmarks for abstinence education.

Then he became a Democrat.

Since switching parties last spring, Specter hasn’t sought a dime in earmarks for abstinence education — a dramatic reversal that critics describe as a case study in the cynical politics of pork-barrel spending.

As an abortion-rights Republican facing primary challenges from the right, Specter could use the abstinence education earmarks to show social conservatives in his party that he was sensitive to their concerns. But as a relatively conservative Democrat, he doesn’t have to worry about a challenge from the right — and has to be careful not to offend liberals, who generally prefer a broader approach to sex education.

“It really is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of the raw politics behind earmarks,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Once he becomes a pro-choice Democrat, [the social conservative bloc] becomes a constituency that’s not as important to get earmarks” for.

Specter’s office said the senator stopped seeking earmarks to fund nongovernmental abstinence education programs because of the difficult economy and because the state of Pennsylvania has begun accepting other federal funds for abstinence education.

But Specter’s move away from abstinence-only earmarks is also consistent with a broader swing to the left as he faces down a primary challenge from a more liberal Democrat, Rep. Joe Sestak.

Over the past 10 months, Specter has come out in favor of the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act, opposed a troop buildup in Afghanistan and reversed his opposition to the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The leftward tilt has Specter taking fire from both directions.

A Sestak spokesman said Specter’s “willingness to reposition himself just for political purposes should give pause to Pennsylvanians who are looking for a loyal senator who will put principle over politics.” And a spokeswoman for former Rep. Pat Toomey — Specter’s likely 2010 Republican challenger — said it’s clear that Specter “stands for nothing except the preservation of his own political career.”

Specter amped up his earmarks for abstinence education in 2003, a year after Pennsylvania first declined Title V funding — money set aside exclusively for abstinence-only programs.

But those requests also came as Specter faced a tough GOP primary fight against Toomey, an ideological conservative with strong support among the Republican base.

“He seemed to up the ante and go after abstinence funds a little harder closer to reelection time,” said Charlene Bashore, legislative and political action committee director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. “Many people would view his efforts closer to his elections with a wink and a nod.”

Between 2003 and 2004, Specter secured more than $5 million in earmarks — and he specifically touted his support of abstinence education programs to audiences across Pennsylvania.

“Abstinence education has demonstrated its value,” he said at a field hearing on the issue in Harrisburg, Pa., as he ran for reelection. “If we can persuade young people to avoid premarital sex and unintended pregnancies, it will be a tremendous step forward.”

Specter was a “very public pro-choice Republican,” said Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based Democratic political consultant. “On a litmus test issue, if you don’t have something else to point to showing that you recognize some of the other parts of that debate, you can have tough political sledding.”

In the 2009 spending bill, Specter won more than $500,000 in earmarks for 22 abstinence-only programs at hospitals, school districts and social service organizations, according to data compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The Urban Family Council, which received more than $310,000 in earmarks in the past, collected an additional $24,000 last year. The group was founded by a Philadelphia evangelical activist and is known for its aggressive efforts to block benefits for gay partners of city employees.

A+ for Abstinence, a Christian program that runs a website called coolvirginity.com, received $24,000. The program, according to the website, “shares sexual purity in an innovative and spiritually sound way that speaks directly to the hearts of young people.”

A study published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine suggested that an abstinence-only class offered without moral overtones could be more effective in preventing teenage sex than either a course on safe sex or a class that taught both abstinence and safe-sex techniques.

Brenda Newport, executive director of the Women’s Care Center of Erie County, said Specter was impressed by her abstinence-education program after visiting several years ago. She’s received funding from his office for 12 years, including more than $400,000 in earmarks since 2003.

But with the earmarks gone and the economy still down, she said, she’ll have to lay off teachers and administrators this fall.

“I haven’t heard anything from him,” she said of Specter. “It’s a double whammy — economic times are harder, and our funding depletes at the same time.”


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