Today, the long-awaited federally funded evaluation of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs was released showing that the programs had no impact on teen behavior.
The official government report concludes: ?Findings indicate that youth in the program group were no more likely than control group youth to have abstained from sex and, among those who reported having had sex, they had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same mean age.?
Citing the release of the 10-year government funded study of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, James Wagoner, President of Advocates for Youth, said: ?After 10 years and $1.5 billion in public funds these failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will go down as an ideological boondoggle of historic proportions.?
Wagoner continued, ?The tragedy is not simply the waste of taxpayer dollars, it is the damage done to the young people who have been on the receiving end of distorted, inaccurate information about condoms and birth control. We have been promoting ignorance in the era of AIDS, and that?s not just bad public health policy, that?s bad ethics.?
Noting that the study was posted on a gvernment Web site with no press release or advisory, Wagoner said: ?The ?stealth release? of this study on an obscure government website on a Friday afternoon is clearly meant to bury its contents. But policy makers must now know that funds for these programs must now be eliminated.?
Citing the fact that the Institute of Medicine, the nation?s leading health authority, had called for the elimination of these programs back in 2000, Wagoner said: ?Congress must now move to de-fund these programs. Anything short of eliminating these programs would be a dereliction of its duty to promote public health and protect young people in the era of AIDS.