Articles

EQUAL TIME

Critics of abstinence education misguided

By BRUCE COOK
Published on: 12/09/04 in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Last week's report by U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) criticizing abstinence education is full of inaccuracies, material taken out of context and gross generalizations. Waxman, a long-standing proponent of contraceptive sex education, has misled the public about abstinence education programs, including Choosing the Best, of which I am president.

Choosing the Best is strongly committed to medical accuracy, uses only published health studies and regularly updates programs to reflect changing medical information.

Waxman reported on 13 of the most popular abstinence programs, including Choosing the Best. However, many of the headline-grabbing statements in the report do not relate to Choosing the Best whatsoever. Choosing the Best does not deal with abortion, religion or contain any scientific errors.

Specific comments about Choosing the Best were either inaccurate, taken out of context or trivial. For example, CTB states with sources that the published failure rate of couples using condoms for birth control is 14 percent. Waxman criticizes that this statement does not explicitly state that 14 percent is an annual failure rate vs. a "per act" failure rate, even though published failure rates are always assumed to be annual rates.

Waxman's report falsely asserts that abstinence education doesn't work, completely ignoring numerous studies to the contrary, including a recently federally funded study of Choosing the Best programs in seven Georgia schools. After one year there was a 26 percent decrease in the initiation of teen sex among high school students receiving CTB vs. a control group. When CTB is presented by more experienced teachers, a 47 percent decrease is achieved.

This latest attempt to discredit abstinence education through a biased, inaccurate report is a disservice to our nation's teens.