HELENA - Montana is one of five states that forbid the Children's Health Insurance Plan from paying for birth control products. As part of the budget deal struck by lawmakers last weekend, that ban will remain intact.

Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, this month inserted language into a pair of budget bills to allow CHIP to start paying for contraception for teenagers covered by the government insurance program.

Yet the deal reached by budget bill negotiators called for striking those changes. House-Senate conference committees formalized that aspect Monday, voting to remove Brueggeman's amendments from the bills.

CHIP provides coverage to people up to 19 years old in low- and moderate-income families.

Brueggeman said many kids become sexually active before they're 19, so why not give them access to birth control, which he said can prevent unwanted pregnancies and, ultimately, abortion.

"We can't bury our heads in the sand and believe that abstinence education works," he said. "A lot of people are willing to pontificate about morality and abortion. … But they're unwilling to make the hard choices about taking the steps to actually prevent abortion."

The Montana Family Foundation, a group that promotes conservative social values, lobbied for keeping the contraception ban in place.

Jeff Laszloffy, president of the foundation, said it's not a proper role for government to be paying for contraception.

If government is telling kids to say no to alcohol, drugs and tobacco, it shouldn't be giving tacit consent to sexual activity, which can lead to "lethal sexually transmitted diseases" like AIDS or the virus that leads to cervical cancer, he said.

"I think there's a double standard here," he said.

"I think they're getting a mixed message."

Senate Majority Leader Jim Peterson, R-Buffalo, said the ban on contraception is part of the budget deal because it's important to many Republicans. The budget bills need Republican votes to pass in the Senate and House.

"It has to do with families and family values and, to be frank, abstinence," Peterson said.

Stacey Anderson, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Montana, said her group is disappointed that the language getting rid of the ban was axed in budget negotiations.

"It still comes down to being on the chopping block for ideological reasons rather than practical reasons," she said.

Anderson said CHIP will remain as the only health insurance policy in the state that does not cover contraception, which is important for preventing teen pregnancies.

Many CHIP-covered patients come to Planned Parenthood for health care, she said, but they can't be given contraception.

"We cover their prenatal care and their pregnancy tests, but we don't cover birth control," she said.