Prompted by her son's experience with an abstinence-only program at school, Lynn Koller, an assistant professor of communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, writes an interesting editorial in the Daytone Beach News-Journal.
Abstinence-only programs don't work, in spite of our government investing more than $1 billion in them over the past decade. Major studies have repeatedly demonstrated that these programs are unsuccessful in reducing teenage sex, STDs or unplanned pregnancy. The April 2007 study commissioned by Congress found that the programs have essentially no effect. The programs are not supported by any major health or medical organization, including American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association or the National Institutes of Health, to name only a few. While President Bush blesses these programs with $50 million per year, school budgets are being slashed and long-serving teachers are being fired because of budget cuts.
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