The news was delivered last Friday, typical for the Bush administration when it wants to minimize media coverage. Yet there it was for all to read. A federal study commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services confirms what we – and many others – have long suspected: federally funded "abstinence-only" sex education programs simply do not work.
Of the 2,000 youth who took part in the longitudinal study, those who participated in abstinence-only programs were no more likely to abstain from sex than their peers who did not participate. James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, summed it up, "After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds, these failed abstinence-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions."
More important than financial waste, however, as Wagoner and others, such as the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, point out, these programs hurt young people. They have been "on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control," Wagoner stated. Ignorance is being promoted in the era of AIDS, he cautioned, and that's not just bad public policy, it's bad ethics.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) offered similar views in a statement released Monday. "We need to get REAL about sex education," she said. "We absolutely should be teaching young people about abstinence, but we shouldn't be holding back information that can save lives and prevent unwanted pregnancies." Lee's bill, the Responsible Education About Life Act, would create a federal funding stream for comprehensive sex education. It's abstinence-plus, as she calls it.
While that bill is certainly worth supporting, here in California, Assemblyman Bob Huff (R-Walnut) had introduced AB708, which would require the state Department of Education to create abstinence-only sex education programs in which the only acceptable sexual activity is within a monogamous marriage. The bill failed to pass the Assembly Health Committee Tuesday but was granted reconsideration.
It seems that Huff hasn't read the aforementioned federal study. Moreover, this type of sex education, as the Lambda Letters Project notes in an alert to members, ignores the needs of LGBT students. "It tells them that it is not okay for them to form loving families with people of the same sex when they grow up," stated chief lobbyist Boyce Hinman. "And yet we have probably two dozen domestic partner laws recognizing and protecting same-sex relationships. The sex education course proposed by AB708 contradicts the established law of California."
As NGLTF's Matt Foreman notes, hundreds of millions of dollars have been "utterly wasted" on abstinence-only programs. And it's because the issue appeases what Foreman calls the "rabidly vocal minority that cares more about getting our government to promote their religious ideology than they do about the health of young people."
Congress should not allocate any more money to this failed sex education program. Young people should be given a wide range of information about sexuality and health, including discussion of condoms, sexually transmitted diseases, and other relevant topics.
Closer to home, Assembly committee members were right to reject Huff's outdated and flawed legislation. Last week's federal report is an authoritative repudiation of abstinence-only education. The state's public schools, at least, should be free of such ideologically driven curricula that does nothing to prepare students for life in the real world.