Just say no more waste
EACH YEAR, Washington spends about $50 million and the states some $37.5 million on programs telling elementary- and middle-school students that the only way for young people to protect themselves from the harmful effects of early sex is abstinence. But the programs do not work, according to a four-year study mandated by Congress.
In the study's two urban and two rural settings, high-school students who were graduates of abstinence-only classes were just as likely to have had sex as students from the four communities who did not attend the classes. In both groups, to which the students were assigned randomly, about half remained abstinent until interviewed in the follow-up, at an average age of 16.5.
The federal programs expire June 30 if Congress doesn't renew them. Based on the $7.7 million study of their impact by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., Congress should stop wasting taxpayers' money. Lawmakers should also mandate that the Bush administration do similar research on the effect of abstinence-only programs in President Bush's comprehensive effort to address HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Congress has insisted that one-third of all HIV-prevention money pay for abstinence-only training in those countries. It is conceivable that such efforts are more successful outside the United States, but until that is shown to be the case the abstinence-only training requirement should be dropped in the overseas AIDS program.
It is striking in the US study how similar the results were for the 2,000 students, regardless of whether they went through the abstinence-only classes. About a quarter of students in both groups had had sex with three or more partners, and in both groups students initiated sex at the same mean age, 14.9.
One encouraging result is that the youths from the abstinence classes were about as likely as the other students to use condoms when they had sex, refuting the fear of critics of abstinence programs that such programs leave young people less informed about how to protect themselves during sex. In all four communities, all students also took health classes that in some cases included instruction about contraception.
Abstinence, especially when it is advocated by parents, clergy, and a student's peers, should be part of the message that young people hear about sex. But as a protection against sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies, the abstinence message goes only so far. Congress should drop its abstinence-only programs and encourage communities to offer comprehensive sex education that includes information on diseases and the various methods of contraception. Congress should also require a rigorous, study of abstinence programs in Africa before spending more on them.
