Burnt Orange Report

Can You Say "Birth Control?"

By Vince Leibowitz

Thanks to a taxpayer funded study, we now have conslusive proof that teens are still having sex--and more of it in some cases--in spite of those lovely Republican abstinence-only sex education programs.

According to a state-commissioned Texas A&M University study, abstinence-only sex ed had no impact on teen behavior in the Lone Star State.

Reuters notes:

Despite taking courses emphasizing abstinence-only themes, teenagers in 29 high schools became increasingly sexually active, mirroring the overall state trends, according to the study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University.

"We didn't see any strong indications that these programs were having an impact in the direction desired," said Dr. Buzz Pruitt, who directed the study.

The study was delivered to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which commissioned it.

The federal government is expected to spend about $130 million to fund programs advocating abstinence in 2005, despite a lack of evidence that they work, Pruitt said.

"The jury is still out, but most of what we've discovered shows there's no evidence the large amount of money spent is having an effect," he said.

It sure is great to spend taxpayer dollars to have written on paper (likely complete with colorful graphs and statistics) a conclusion that most parents (and teens) came to decades ago (and perhaps as far back as the beginning of time).

But, before I actually get into some of the interesting stats, I thought it was very funny that the Abstinence Clearinghouse have already declared the study a victory for Republican sponsored abstinence-only education, via USNewswire:

Opponents of truth and common sense are working hard to make abstinence education look bad. Unfortunately, it isn't working. Most recently, a study by Texas A & M University is drawing headlines across the state questioning the results of abstinence education. The flawed study, however, fails to have a control group by which to compare its results. When compared with the general teen population (data found in the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance), teens who participate in abstinence education programs have significantly lower sexual activity rates.

I know just about every Aggie joke every written goes against my thinking this, but surely the folks at A&M--where they have actually managed to clone living animals--are smart enough to have had a "control group."

Anyway, back to the stats. Here are some snippits:

The study showed about 23 percent of ninth-grade girls, typically 13 to 14 years old, had sex before receiving abstinence education. After taking the course, 29 percent of the girls in the same group said they had had sex.

Boys in the tenth grade, about 14 to 15 years old, showed a more marked increase, from 24 percent to 39 percent, after receiving abstinence education.

Abstinence-only programs, of course, can't offer information about birth control and "must promote the social and health benefits of abstaining from sex," according to Reuters.

To clarify, I'm not in favor of teen sex (what politician is), but I have though abstinance should be included in regular sex ed, and that it shouldn't be the "only" sex ed there is.

I'm hoping to find a copy of the study online, because I'd be curious to know if it also tracked teen pregnancy among the groups studied. Surely, if teen sex increased that much, teen pregnancy (not to mention SDTs) had to increase, too. And, if the kids weren't being taught about safe sex but were sexually active, it stands to reason that at least a decent percentage (perhaps the percentage that hasn't seen the varied PSA all over MTV) was having unprotected sex.

Vince Leibowitz is the County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County.

Posted by Vince Leibowitz at February 1, 2005 12:14 AM | TrackBack