Federally supported abstinence educational materials must contain medically accurate information about condoms, the General Accountability Office said in letter issued October 18.

Social conservatives had pushed a provision in the 2000 Public Services Act that requires that educational materials contain medically accurate information about condom effectiveness. They wanted to emphasize that condoms are not 100 percent effective when it comes to prevention of transmission of HIV, HPV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Therefore, they maintain, abstinence is best. They did not hesitate to spread misinformation about condoms and other matters to try to scare folks into practicing abstinence, according to a congressional staff review.

The Department of Health and Human Services has maintained that the provision requiring accuracy with regard to condom information does not apply to abstinence programs because their primary purpose is not to address STDs.

But the GAO, parsing the legal interpretation of the legislation and the call for grant applications posted by the department, found that position untenable.

"While general references to sexually transmitted diseases would appear insufficient to trigger the application [of the provision of the law requiring medical accuracy], the inclusion of more detailed information as an essential element of the materials' design would require the incorporation of medically accurate information on condom effectiveness," GAO general counsel Gary L. Kepplinger wrote to HHS Secretary Michael O. Leavitt.

"We recommend that HHS reexamine its position and adopt measures to ensure that, where applicable, abstinence education materials comply with this requirement," Kepplinger wrote.

Representative Henry Waxman (D-California) had requested the legal review by GAO. He responded to the letter with a statement saying, "All federally funded programs for teens should provide medically and scientifically accurate information. This will contribute to ensuring that abstinence education programs meet this standard."

Two years ago Waxman's congressional staff released a review of 13 commonly used abstinence-only education materials. The review found that 11 of them contained "unproved claims, subjective conclusions, or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits, and when life begins."

"We welcome the GAO's finding and eagerly await the next steps by HHS to come into compliance with federal law," said William Smith, vice president for public policy at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

"For the better part of 25 years, abstinence-only-until-marriage programs have been permitted to use taxpayer dollars to lie about the effectiveness of condoms and the current administration has, time and again, failed to hold these programs accountable for much of anything except cashing their grant checks," said Smith.