On Abstinence-Only Sex Education

I've been thinking a lot about this topic lately.

I get irritated when I think that our government is allegedly separate from the church, when it is in fact more closely united than people like to believe.

The case in point is the current federal spending on sex education for our nation's youth. In 2005, the federal government spent $170 million on abstinence-only sex education. That is the only type of sex education that the federal government (then under the Bush Administration) would spend money on. It might be fine to spend money on such programs, if they actually worked. Look at this graphic from this study (1) on abstinence programs.

People in the abstinence program were no different than people who did not participate. Sure, this is only one study, but if these programs were working, I would expect there to be an actual effect in making teens have less sex. But, the complete opposite is true...the programs have no effect. So, if they have no effect, then why do they continue?

It's because of the church. The church tells you that people need to abstain from having sex until your married. And that's fine. The church can tell you to do whatever you want. But that doesn't stop the fact that with my actual tax dollars on the line, the government is funding programs that are not proven to work. The only reason that they are still being used is related to the power of the church.

I just think we need some 21st century sex education. People who take abstinence pledges when they are teens and participate in these programs, don't change their behavior. And by ignoring the inevitability of teens having sex, you don't educate people on proper birth control options, leading to more teen pregnancy in our country and more sexually transmitted diseases. All because you don't believe in telling people about condoms? According to the Texas Freedom Network on this topic (who are probably a bit biased), teen pregnancy costs Texas taxpayers $1 billion a year. That's a lot of money that could be saved by giving our teens the appropriate information.

Another study released by Congressman Harry Waxman in 2004 (2), showed that abstinence-only curricula:

• Contain false information about the effectiveness of contraceptives
• Contain false information about the risks of abortion
• Blur religion and science

I just think people need more information, not less of it. Hopefully Obama will do something about it.


(1) - http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/impactabstinence.pdf
(2) - http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20041201102153-50247.pdf