AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine’s decision to stop accepting federal funds for an abstinence-based sex-education program is drawing mixed reviews.

State and national experts said Monday that Maine’s decision makes it only the third state, after California and Pennsylvania, to take such action.

“It’s definitely an anomaly” that will not have effect beyond Maine, said Robert Rector of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, which supports abstinence education. “I think abstinence is basically gaining ground all the time,” Rector said.

Lorraine Kenny of the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, which opposes abstinence education, said Maine’s decision to turn down federal funding was “a very hopeful sign” that broader approaches to sex education are gaining favor.

Maine accepted federal abstinence funds annually from 1998 through last year but did not apply for $165,000 in funds during the current federal fiscal year. Officials said the state will not seek $161,000 that would be available for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, the state’s public health chief, said teen pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates in Maine have dropped substantially.

Under newly tightened federal rules, she said, “this money has to be part of an abstinence-only program,” and Mills said that would prevent the state from providing “comprehensive information” to both encourage abstinence and help sexually active young people.

Nancy Birkhimer of the state Department of Health and Human Services said Maine used federal funds in the past to discourage premature sexual activity.

, show that alcohol and drug use make people vulnerable to sexual advances and describe abstinence as the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.