The Truth About Abstinence-Only Education      12/3/2004
By CWA Staff

Independent research repeatedly confirms that it is working.

Headlines this week blared alarmist reactions to the increased federal funding of abstinence education in our nation’s schools upon release of a congressional study issued by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California). According to Rep. Waxman’s wildly misrepresented facts and out-of-context suggestions, he and his colleagues are insisting that abstinence education is dangerous, misleading and riddled with inaccuracies.

“What’s misleading is that papers like The Washington Post are giving credit to liberal studies like these, and the ACLU claiming abstinence education blurs the line between religion and science,” said Lanier Swann, director of government relations for Concerned Women for America. “What could be more solidly scientific than telling a child that abstinence is the only method that is 100 percent effective in protecting from pregnancy and specific sexually transmitted diseases? I see no blur there.”

“Apparently the ACLU needs to hire stronger fact-checkers before cranking out inaccurate press releases,” Swann continued. “Under the stipulations from federal funding, abstinence education must be presented factually, not based solely on religious undertones, as the ACLU would have us believe. In fact, according to the Abstinence Clearinghouse, ‘its exclusive purpose [is] teaching the social, psychological and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity.’”

The Heritage Foundation’s Melissa Pardue explained, “While Waxman portrays increases in abstinence education as excessive, his attacks blithely ignore the fact that government funding for contraception-based sex education far outweighs the spending for abstinence education.

In 2002 alone, the government spent $12 promoting contraception and condom use for every $1 it spent to encourage teens to abstain from sexual activity. However, Waxman has consistently opposed funding for abstinence education and in this instance is doing so by making false and misleading statements about the effectiveness of abstinence education.” [Emphasis added.]

While Waxman’s report stated that abstinence-only education “does not appear to decrease teen pregnancy or the risk of sexually transmitted diseases,” the reality is that 10 evaluations have reported its success in reducing teen sexual activity, including four published in peer-reviewed journals. In fact, an April 2003 study in Adolescent and Family Health asserted that increased abstinence “was the major cause of declining birth and pregnancy rates among teen girls.”

A recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) counteracts Waxman’s claims that teens rarely keep their virginity pledges. The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows a decrease in the number of teens who are sexually active from 1991 to 2003, from 54.1 to 46.7 percent.

Further, a January 2004 Zogby poll refutes Rep. Waxman’s claims that the vast majority of parents want their children to receive comprehensive sex education, replete with instructions on contraception. The poll found:

• 91 percent of parents want schools to teach that “adolescents should be expected to abstain from sexual activity during high school years.”
• 79 percent of parents want teens to be taught that they should not engage in sexual activity until they are married or at least in an adult relationship leading to marriage.
• 68 percent of parents want sex education programs to teach that “individuals who are not sexually active until they are married have the best chances of marital stability and happiness.”
• 91 percent of parents want teens to be taught that “the best choice is for sexual intercourse to be linked to love, intimacy, and commitment. These qualities are most likely to occur in a faithful marriage.”

“The Waxman report is nothing but a hit piece, an extremely misleading attempt to discredit abstinence programs because they pose a huge threat to the ‘safe sex’ establishment that promotes pre-marital sex, homosexuality and gender confusion,” said Robert Knight, director of CWA’s Culture & Family Institute.

“Parents overwhelmingly want children taught to avoid sex, not to experiment with flavored condoms. Waxman promotes the kind of sex education that has resulted in 15 million new annual cases of sexually transmitted infections.” (Source: National Institutes of Health conference on condom effectiveness, June 12, 2000)

“U.S. taxpayers have spent more than $3 billion on such programs, and then are paying again to treat millions of cases that result from ‘safe sex.’ Mr. Waxman accuses promoters of abstinence-only education of relying on bad science, but there is no credible science supporting the ‘comprehensive’ model,” Knight said. “The results of relying on condom-based sex education are in—soaring rates of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, with younger and younger victims.

“Waxman, who represents West Hollywood, a city run by homosexual activists, seems content to snuff out the candle of hope that abstinence programs represent. Instead, he wants to shovel more federal tax dollars into politically correct programs that guarantee a steady stream of clients for the AIDS and abortion establishments.”

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