This long awaited report had been authorized by Congress in 1997, according to the Washington Post. Here are the results [1]:
A long-awaited national study has concluded that abstinence-only sex education, a cornerstone of the Bush administration’s social agenda, does not keep teenagers from having sex. Neither does it increase or decrease the likelihood that if they do have sex, they will use a condom.
The federal government spends $176 million a year on abstinence-only education, and millions more are spent every year in state and local matching grants.
The Post quoted a sex-ed expert,
“Comprehensive education means teaching about abstinence and a myriad of other topics,” said spokeswoman Martha Kempner. Among them, she said: “contraception, critical thinking, one’s own values and the values of your family and your religious community.
“Abstinence-only was an experiment and it failed.”
Nancy Keenan of Naral also weighed in [2] on the results of the study:
“Independent studies continue to demonstrate that Bush’s abstinence-only approach is a failure. Not only are they ineffective, the programs mislead our teens and censor teachers from giving students the truth about contraception. Congress and this administration should support honest, age-appropriate, and medically accurate sex education that promotes abstinence and provides young people with the information they need to protect themselves. Honest sex education is the only approach that works.”
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