New Hampshire rejected its $82,000 federal grant to teach abstinence-based sex education, and California did not include its $5.7 million grant in its state budget, the Washington Times reports, referring to federal funds available to states through the $50 million-a-year Maternal and Child Health Block Grant.

"It´s incredible that states would refuse free money to tell kids not to have sex," said National Coalition for Abstinence Education spokesperson Peter Brandt. The two states´ refusal comes in addition to news last week that the Richmond, VA, health department also refused federal money for the program.

"It´s a symptom of an entrenched mentality that you find in many public health departments around the country. It´s ideological opposition to abstinence," said Matthew Daniel's, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

The Washington Times reports that New Hampshire refused its abstinence grant after reaching "some impasses" on how to run the program. "For at least this round, we are declining the money," said top state health department official John Wallace. And although California dropped its grant -- the largest in the country -- from its budget, state Assemblyman George Runner (R) says he expects Gov. Pete Wilson (R) will try to get the funds back. "We were sickened by their refusal to accept free money to help prevent teen pregnancy," said Natalie Williams of the Sacramento, CA-based Capitol Resource Institute (Wetzstein, 5/16).