A new report has come out that will hopefully prove to lawmakers what anyone who has been to an abstinence-only high school already knew: abstinence-oriented sexual education classes don't work.
As reported in today's article on the report, the study showed that a control group comprised of students who didn't take an abstinence-oriented sexual education program didn't have significantly different views on sex than their peers who did take the courses.
More importantly, not only are their views virtually identical, their actions were as well. The students studied didn't display a meaningful difference in their level of sexual activity.
So what has about $176 million of annual federal funding - up from $87.5 million during the Clinton years - resulted in for America's youth?
Well, students who take the abstinence education classes are more likely to sign a "formal vow" that they will remain abstinent until marriage - they're just not any more likely to keep it.
Also, previous studies have shown that as many as 80 percent of abstinence-oriented programs contain false or misleading information on the effectiveness of contraception.
Meanwhile, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate as any of our peers in terms of economic power.
Are we so far behind because other countries' teenagers have better programs teaching them to abstain from sexual intercourse until they're married?
Hardly.
Teenagers in other countries, like England, Sweden and Canada, are just as sexually active. A major difference - those countries also have more information on birth control readily available. In some cases, they even make birth control readily available to the teenage population.
By the way, for those concerned about the morality of our youth, American adolescents also report having more sexual partners than their European counterparts.
Ironically, while conservatives in America advocate for abstinence-only education, statistics - including teen abortion rates - continue to prove those same programs aren't doing much good.
If parents and communities are really worried about the moral fiber of their young ones, they have plenty of time to instill their sexual values at home and at church. They'll leave the teachers to teach the facts.
