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A Look at the Adolescent Family Life Act
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16834 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1989 |
2,285 Words |
| Author
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Nabers Cabaniss
Nabers Cabaniss is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Population Affairs in the U.S. Public Health Service. |
In 1981, federal policy aiming to prevent out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy took a new turn. No longer would the government focus exclusively on providing teens with contraceptive services. Instead Congress took a step back to look at the underlying roots of the problem, focused on the family as the cornerstone of the solution, and endorsed strategies that affirm sexuality in the context of marriage while encouraging teens to postpone sexual activity.
This new federal approach, called the Adolescent Family Life Act (AFL) and enacted under the leadership of Senators Jeremiah Denton (former R-Alabama) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), provided an alternative to the pessimistic idea that only a massive infusion of funds for contraceptive distribution and sex education could stem the growing tide of out-of-wedlock teen pregnancies. Unlike previous policies, AFL did not adopt the defeatist stance that widespread teen sexual activity was inevitable and unavoidable. Nor did this legislation assume that mere prevention of teen pregnancy was sufficient. Addressing the corollary problems of sexually transmitted diseases and the emotional trauma that premature sexual involvement can cause, AFL affirmed the family as the primary force for guiding and educating teens by exemplifying the meaning of sexuality in the context of love, fidelity, and marriage; it supported family-centered, community-based efforts to promote sexual abstinence for unmarried adolescents.
As Congress stated in the words of the Adolescent Family Life Act,
[P]revention of adolescent sexual activity and adolescent
pregnancy depends primarily upon developing strong family
values and close family ties, and since the family is the
basic social unit in which the values and attitudes of
adolescents concerning sexuality and pregnancy are formed,
programs designed to deal with issues of sexuality and
pregnancy will be successful to the extent that such
programs encourage and sustain the role of the family in
dealing with adolescent sexual activity and adolescent
pregnancy. (Title XX of the Public Health Service Act,
Section
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