Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several dozen members of Congress, all abortion advocates, have signed a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey asking him to cut all funds for abstinence education. They don't want any money spent in the FY 2009 Health and Human Services appropriations bill spent on abstinence.

Congressman Jim Moran, a pro-abortion Virginia Democrat, led the letter campaign and gathered the signatures of 76 of his Congressional colleagues.

"We urge you to reconsider funding for the [abstinence programs] and to devote those dollars to other more effective programs," the letter reads.

They want the money axed from the Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program.

It called "an important first step" Obey's decision last year to not increase the current level of funding despite requests from President Bush to do so.

The letter complains that $1 billion has been spent on abstinence education programs and the letter claims several studies shows them ineffective.

"Study after study has proven that abstinence-only education simply does not work and we cannot afford to waste millions of taxpayer dollars on programs that we know to be a failure," it claimed.

However, Valerie Huber, the executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, points to a Valerie Huber, the executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association,

According to the Centers for Disease Control, nationwide there has been a 13 percent decrease in the percentage of teens who have ever had sex between 1991 and 2005.

While the federal government continues to fund the programs, there are now 17 states that have rejected the funding.