I’ll be writing in more detail about this later (probably in a day or two), but recent findings in Minnesota, where the State funds an abstinence-only sexual education program for its public schools, seem to be suggesting that the program is not effective.<\/p>\n
The findings, in the form of an evaluation report, can be found here<\/a> (.PDF format, 225K), an article on the findings can be found here<\/a>, and the program’s website is saynotyet.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The key paragraphs in the article I linked to are:<\/p>\n That is still lower than the average rate of sexually active adolescents in those counties, researchers said. But the abstinence-only message would have been viewed as a success if the rates of sexual activity and sexual intentions among the ENABL group had remained about the same in each year, researchers said.<\/p>\n “Given how much money is being spent, it seems like a really weak intervention,” said Connie Schmitz, the outside consultant with Professional Evaluation Services of Minneapolis. Schmitz, who headed the study, said it raises serious questions about whether sexually active kids are getting the information they need to avoid pregnancy and infectious diseases.<\/p><\/div>\n I’m not well-versed in the statistical evidence related to contraception vs. abstinence-only programs (this is part of the reason for the delay before I write more on this subject) but having been through both contraception-based and abstinence-only sexual education programs I can say that I’m not entirely surprised that the abstinence-only programs don’t seem to be working. When I was going through those programs they were viewed by myself and my peers as something of a long, boring joke. Those of us who were going to end up having sex had already decided to have sex and those of us who weren’t planning on having sex had already decided to abstain.<\/p>\n Then again, the programs I went through were filled with lies, lies, and more lies. For instance, we were taught that the AIDS virus could slip through “tiny holes” in condoms (remember that one? No, the Vatican was not the first to spout that crap), that 90+% of women who had abortions suffer from terrible, mind-breaking depression with most of those going on to kill themselves, and that no contraceptives were effective even in the slightest degree.<\/p>\n Maybe I just got a bad program that left me with poor impressions, but I’m not surprised that the program in Minnesota doesn’t seem to be doing all that well.<\/p>\n Report via Atrios<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n Edited for clarity, 0:55 1\/5\/03.<\/i>.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ll be writing in more detail about this later (probably in a day or two), but recent findings in Minnesota, where the State funds an abstinence-only sexual education program for its public schools, seem to be suggesting that the program … Continue reading