Abstincence Education Meets Science

And loses. The Senate is balking at funding abstinence education and more and more states are opting out of federal funding:

In abandoning abstinence education, states have largely said that comprehensive sex education programs, which discuss contraception beyond the failure rates, have a better scientific grounding. New laws in Colorado, Iowa and Washington state that sex education must be based on “research” or “science” — which is often interpreted as code for programs that include discussions of safer sex.

Much of the data cited in support of the efficacy of abstinence programs are from surveys taken immediately before and after a program. These commonly find an increase in intentions to stay abstinent, but do not necessarily mean that a year later, high on emotion, teenagers will follow the script.

Most studies so far have found no significant impact on behavior, and the few that do see only modest changes. In April, Mathematica Policy Research released a report that was nine years and $8 million in the making. Scientists followed middle school children enrolled in four separate abstinence programs for about five years, and found no difference in the age of first intercourse between them and their peers.

I don't have any problem with encouraging abstinence as part of a sex education program that also discusses the importance of using birth control. Teaching kids to wait is good; teaching them how to be smart and safe is better. Human nature is human nature, after all.

The abstinence education program has turned into another federal boondoggle; it goes on despite its proven ineffectiveness. And can you guess which state receives the most abstinence education money? The same state that has seen the smallest decline in teenage pregnancy? That would be the home state of our President.