AUGUSTA – A decision by state officials to reject $161,000 in federal money for an abstinence-based sex education program could come back to haunt them the next time they want the Legislature to increase funding for the Bureau of Health.

The head of Maine’s Bureau of Health announced Tuesday that the state would no longer accept the federal funding because the strings attached to it would constrain what

has become a very balanced and successful approach to sex education in Maine.

But state Sen. Debra D. Plowman, R-Hampden, was outraged and said she will urge Republicans and Democrats to deny budget expansions for the bureau in the future.

“First of all, the bureau’s director, Dr. Dora Mills, is not a policymaker or elected, like legislators, so I continue to object to policy being made by bureaucrats,” Plowman said. “Second, I hope that she’s going to find that $161,000 somewhere in her budget to continue the program she has been involved in, because we’re not making it up. So she best not be asking for any increases in her budget next year, or the two years after that for that matter. If she can unilaterally turn away money, then she can’t be in too difficult circumstances. She, and the governor, should have run that one by the Legislature.”

Surrounded by supporters representing a coalition known as Plain Truth for Maine Youth, Dr. Mills told reporters at the State House press conference Tuesday that efforts to address teenage pregnancies in this state have always emphasized the dissemination of “full information” concerning sexual activity options – including abstinence. The policy has resulted in a marked decrease in unwanted teen pregnancies, she said.

Although the state has been accepting about $170,000 in federal funds annually since 1998 for the abstinence-only program, Dr. Mills said she and Gov. John E. Baldacci agreed that increasing federal restrictions on what the state can and cannot do with the money had reached the point where it no longer seemed prudent to participate. As a result, Maine has become only the third state in the country to reject the abstinence-only-until-marriage funding.

“We have put those funds into some ‘not me, not now’ television ads and other campaigns,” Mills said. “What we found was that the campaign’s effectiveness was very limited. Meanwhile, the federal government has become more stringent on the [terms] that these ad monies must follow. We can no longer follow all the restrictions of these funds because they are in direct conflict with Maine’s comprehensive approach to family life education.”

Dr. Mills said that while she believes abstinence should be taught “first and foremost,” she also maintained that full information about safe sexual activities must be offered – a message federal officials perceive as being in conflict with the abstinence program.

“These funds do not allow that and are also harmful to our youth because they blind them from receiving information that is so critical to them making healthy decisions,” she said.

The bureau director’s remarks were praised by members of the coalition, including William Smith, vice president for public policy for the Washington, D.C.-based Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S, and Nicole Clegg, director of public affairs for the Family Planning Association of Maine.

“Maine again leads the nation in adopting what works best in helping young people lead healthier, happier lives,” Smith said. “Maine understands that there is no need for the extremism that pits abstinence against other issues such as teaching about condoms and other forms of contraception. This important decision is based on the time-tested and proven evidence that finds teaching abstinence alongside other issues, not in isolation from them, provides the best long term outcomes for youth.”

“We thank Maine’s Health and Human Services’ Public Health Department for having the courage to refuse these funds and putting the well-being of our young people ahead of a political agenda,” Clegg said.

Instead of a “political agenda,” opponents like Plowman insisted they were only interested in discouraging a state policy that seemed to give tacit approval to casual sex among teen-agers. Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said that rather than focus on the narrow positions of abstinence versus nonabstinence, Maine lawmakers should instead be promoting policies that work to decrease teenage pregnancies and incidents of sexually transmitted diseases. She said current programs offering full information on sexual activity are getting that job done.

“I think we need to keep looking at the big picture and not [as legislators] attempt to micromanage state policy,” she said.