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November 18, 2006
Playing Catch-Up
An October report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress's nonpartisan investigative arm, set out to evaluate abstinence-until-marriage sex-ed programs. Abstinence is sometimes taught to the exclusion of information about safer sex, which proponents say encourages promiscuity. Opponents of abstinence-only education say that withholding information about condoms, for example, leaves students uninformed and more prone to disease or pregnancy if they do have sex. Proponents say explicit sex talk in schools encourages promiscuity.
The two sides spar over whether data supports one approach or the other in reducing teen pregnancy, teen sex and disease transmission. GAO’s contribution: "Most of the efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of abstinence-until-marriage education programs included in GAO's review have not met certain minimum scientific criteria ... that experts have concluded are necessary in order for assessments of program effectiveness to be scientifically valid, in part because such designs can be expensive and time-consuming to carry out."
Government rules both here and abroad sometimes direct money to abstinence-only programs. An earlier GAO report says such rules result in confusion and misspent money on the ground. PEPFAR's response.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at November 18, 2006 02:27 AM