If they can't catch bin Laden just how do they think they can stop kids having sex?
One of George w. Bush's favourite sops to his Christian fundamentalist base is his focus on abstinence-education for America's teens. Tell them to leave that thing alone and they will - or so they claim. This is their preferred alternative to the godless scheme to actually educate teenagers on all options, including Satanic safe sex.
After pouring tens of millions of taxbucks into abstinence training, how well is it working? Not worth a tinker's damn. A study into adolescent sexual behaviour conducted by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy concludes that abstinence-only programmes are worthless. From The Guardian:
"At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners'' among teenagers, the study concluded.
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes'' including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use.''
The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having "positive outcomes'' including teenagers "delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use.''
"Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect,'' said the report.
The study, conducted by Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at ETR Associates, also sought to debunk what the report called "myths propagated by abstinence-only advocates'' including: that comprehensive sex education promotes promiscuity, hastens the initiative of sex or increases its frequency, and sends a confusing message to adolescents.
None of these was found to be accurate, Kirby wrote.
Instead, he wrote, such programs improved teens' knowledge about the risks and consequences of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases and gave them greater "confidence in their ability to say 'no' to unwanted sex.''
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