US to end funding of abstinence program

The federal government yesterday agreed to end funding of a controversial abstinence education program that critics said also unconstitutionally promoted religion.

The American Civil Liberties Union announced the decision as part of a settlement of a lawsuit it filed against the federal government last year in US District Court in Boston. The civil liberties group asserted that the federally funded workshops run by the nonprofit Silver Ring Thing organization crossed the line into religious proselytizing.

The Silver Ring Thing, which sells $15 rings to teens pledging to refrain from sex until marriage, has received about $1.2 million in federal funding since 2003. The group held at least four abstinence promotion events in Massachusetts between 2002 and 2005.

In court papers, the ACLU noted that the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit describes its mission as ''offering a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the best way to live a sexually pure life." During Silver Ring Thing programs, attendees are urged to embrace Christianity, the ACLU said.

In May, the ACLU filed suit. At the time, Silver Ring Thing released a statement saying its goal was to teach teens about the risks and responsibilities of sexual activity and that it had used federal funds appropriately.

The government sent Department of Health and Human Services regulators to a Silver Ring Thing event in Canton, Ohio, as well as to the group's headquarters.

Last August, the government suspended funding, telling the organization that it had not ''adequately separated" its religious message from its sex education work. The government asked the group to review its work and present a plan to comply with church-state separation.

Yesterday, the federal government settled the ACLU lawsuit, saying it would not fund the Silver Ring Thing's current abstinence promotion program and would monitor any future grants to the group.

Silver Ring Thing officials yesterday did not return phone messages seeking comment, nor did a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The settlement marked a setback for the Bush administration's effort to include more faith-based groups in federally funded social outreach, with nearly $27 million in abstinence programs budgeted in the next fiscal year.

''We are pleased that the government has agreed to stop using taxpayer dollars to fund the Silver Ring Thing's religious activities," Julie Sternberg, a senior staff lawyer with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. ''The ACLU supports the right of Silver Ring Thing to offer religious programming, but it may not do so using government funds."

Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.