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PrintNovember 10, 2010
Graph for the Day for November 10, 2010
Abstinence programs have no effect ... really?
"In 1996, Congress authorized $50 million annually for five years to states for abstinence education programs ... authorized under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. ... [Two key findings of the mandated evaluation were]:
- Youth in the program group [which was offered abstinence-only education] were no more likely than those in the control group to have abstained from sex, and, among those who reported having had sex, they had similar numbers of sexual partners.
- Contrary to concerns raised by critics of abstinence education, youth in the program group were no more likely to have unprotected sex than youth in the control group."[1]
- Mathematica Policy Research
Index of Change in Adolescent Births - 1994 to 2003 :
Childbearing of all adolescent females under 15 years of age
Decrease in the birthrate of adolescents: 53%
Decrease in the abortion rate of adolescents: 44%
Childbearing of white adolescent females under 15 years of age
Decrease in number of births: 38%
Increase in the population of white females 10 to 14: 10%
Childbearing of black adolescent females under 15 years of age
Decrease in number of births: 58%
Increase in the population of black females 10 to 14: 24%
Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., author of Children at Risk (Transaction, 2010), is Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute, Concerned Women for America's think-tank.
[1] Mathematica Policy Research, Evaluation of Abstinence Education Programs Funded Under Title V, Section 510, www.mathematica-mpr.com/family_support/abstinence.asp .
