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Posted: Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Abstinance Only Study Shows It Works

The Medical Institute for Sexual Health reported on a University of Pennsylvania study that "After 24 months, only the abstinence-only intervention was effective in preventing adolescents from engaging in sexual intercourse, with 33% fewer students initiating sexual intercourse in the abstinence intervention than in the health-promotion control group. None of the other interventions showed a significant decrease in the number of students initiating sexual intercourse when compared to the control students.
"The researchers concluded that the abstinence-only intervention had the most dramatic effect on the prevention of adolescent sexual involvement."
Yet President Obama has proposed to spend $183 million for programs that promote the use of contraceptives for pregnancy prevention after ending $170 million of funding to abstinence-only programs. The reason is because the administration believes that scientific research proves that abstinence-only programs are ineffective.
But an article written by Donna Garner (http://www.crossroad.to/News/education.html) shows how many of these "studies" are "bogus stud(ies)". She cites studies that were conducted by those who had produced contraceptive education programs or were members of organizations that promote the use of contraceptives in sex-ed classes. Many of the studies, like the Mathmatica study of 2007 or the Texas Department of Health study, lacked sufficient comparison groups or only studied four or five programs. Many other discrepancies were mentioned.
This year in Wisconsin, the governor signed into law that all schools that have health and human development classes must teach. Recently, Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth wrote a letter to the school districts in his county warning that the schools could be charged with promoting the delinquency of a minor. His letter has drawn much condemnation from government and school officials in Wisconsin. Looking at the latest study backing up abstinence only programs, he may be the only government official who makes sense.

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