"Many American
youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years
that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested
positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff
analysis has found.
Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted
information" in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the
curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.
"
...
"Nonpartisan researchers have been unable to document measurable benefits of the abstinence-only
model. Columbia University researchers found that although teenagers who take "virginity pledges" may wait longer to
initiate sexual activity, 88 percent eventually have premarital sex.
Bill Smith, vice president of public
policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a comprehensive sex education group
that also receives federal funding, said the Waxman report underscored the need for closer monitoring of what he
called the "shame-based, fear-based, medically inaccurate messages" being disseminated with tax money. He said the
danger of abstinence education lies in the omission of useful medical
information."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2004Dec1.html
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