Abstinence-Only Program Ineffective, Not Worth The Federal Money, Editorial Says

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Public Health
Article Date: 26 Aug 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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"[P]ro-choice, pro-family planning" Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) is in "danger of legitimizing the ethical fraud of abstinence-only education" if he accepts federal abstinence education grants to be distributed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, a Philadelphia Daily News editorial says. According to the Daily News, Pennsylvania has not accepted federal funding for abstinence-only education since 2003, but the state Health Department is preparing an application for about $1.7 million in grants this year. In a statement, Rendell acknowledged the "limited effectiveness" of these programs, but said it's important to teach abstinence and does not want to "stand in the way" of groups using the funding, according to the editorial.

However, "every legitimate scientific study" of abstinence-only education has found that these programs do "more harm than good," the editorial says, adding that the programs provide "medically inaccurate" information by mentioning contraceptive methods "only to say that they fail, not that they protect against pregnancy" and sexually transmitted infections. Most of the $1.5 billion the federal government has spent on abstinence-only programs in the past 10 years has gone to faith-based organizations "because ethical educators and health professionals won't have anything to do with these programs," the Daily News says. If Pennsylvania applies for funding for the abstinence-only programs, "it would be saying it's OK for our kids to get inaccurate and dangerous misinformation, as long as somebody else tells the lies," the editorial says, concluding, "These discredited programs are just the kind that a pro-choice, pro-family planning Democratic governor should want to stand in the way of" (Philadelphia Daily News, 8/22).

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