Abstinence-Only Spending In Texas 'Clearly Not Working,' Editorial Says

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 17 Jul 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Texas' spending on abstinence-only sex education and restrictions on what teachers are allowed to tell students about sex and contraception "clearly" are "not working" to prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among teenagers, an Austin American-Statesman editorial says.

According to the editorial, the state "continues to spend more tax dollars than any other state teaching abstinence" and has "widespread abstinence-only instruction," but "it still has one of the nation's highest rates of teens giving birth." A study -- which was contracted by the state to determine if the funding for abstinence programs "was doing any good" and conducted by a professor at Texas A&M University -- found that the programs were not "changing the behavior of teenagers" nor "preventing them from delaying sex until marriage," the editorial says.

"There is nothing wrong with teaching teenagers and young adults the good points of abstaining from sex until they are married," the editorial says, adding that the "problem in Texas is the single-minded, abstinence-focused approach that keeps students from receiving a comprehensive understanding about sex that includes preventing pregnancy and disease." Although it is "impossible to know if comprehensive sex education that includes abstinence, contraception and disease prevention would lower the shocking rates of teen birth and disease in Texas," there is "too much doubt about abstinence-focused education to dismiss a broader approach," the editorial says.

"What Texas is doing now wastes money and doesn't work," the editorial notes. It concludes that the state's "political and education leaders should look at the statistics and realize that young lives are imperiled and taxpayers burdened by teaching abstinence at the expense of a broader, comprehensive look at sex education" (Austin American-Statesman, 7/13).

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