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ATLANTA, December 7, 2004 — Last week Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) published a report criticizing abstinence education titled, “The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs.” This report, conducted by Waxman and his staff, is full of inaccuracies and gross generalizations.

Mr. Waxman is not an objective evaluator and this report is politically motivated. He is a longstanding, aggressive proponent of contraceptive-focused sex education and his motivation for writing this report is to stop the Bush administration from allocating more money for abstinence education. “This report was prepared at taxpayer expense by partisan committee staff and was not reviewed in any hearings or publicly discussed with experts in abstinence education,” said Congressman Joe Pitts in a letter to the Washington Post. “Instead, Mr. Waxman took advantage of a slow news cycle to pass off his ideological attack as a legitimate congressional study. This type of misleading public relations tactic abuses taxpayer funds and distracts from the underlying fact that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective means of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.”

Waxman reported on the top 13 most popular abstinence programs among federal SPRANS grant recipients, which included Choosing the Best. Unfortunately he created inaccurate, false, generalized headlines about all abstinence programs based on issues he cited in only a few programs. Alma Golden, MD, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs stated, “This report misses the boat. These issues have been raised before and discredited. Unfortunately what they continue to do for purely political reasons is to take issues and information out of context to try and discredit abstinence education, which is a disservice to our children.”

Many of the headline grabbing statements do not relate to Choosing the Best whatsoever. Three of Waxman’s major headlines are that abstinence education: 1) contains false and misleading information about abortion; 2) blurs religion and science; 3) contains scientific errors. Choosing the Best does not deal with the subject of abortion nor does it contain any religious references or scientific errors. Choosing the Best is committed to being medically accurate and using only recognized published health studies. Curricula programs are regularly updated to reflect changing medical information.

Waxman’s specific criticisms that did include references to Choosing the Best were inaccurate, taken out of context, or trivial. For example, Choosing the Best states and sources that the published failure rate of couples using condoms for birth control is 14%. Under the sensationalized heading “Abstinence education contains false, misleading information about condoms” Waxman then criticizes that the above Choosing the Best statement does not explicitly state that 14% is an annual failure rate versus a per act failure rate, even though published failure rates are always assumed annual rates without stating them as such.

In another example, Choosing the Best quotes directly from the National Institutes of Health study that condoms do not protect against HPV. Under the heading “abstinence education contains false and misleading information about the risks of sexual activity,” Waxman criticizes that CTB did not also mention the importance of pap smears.

In another case, Choosing the Best states, “Generally, guys are able to focus better on one activity at a time and may not connect feelings with actions. Girls access both sides of the brain at once, so they often experience feelings and emotions as part of every situation.” Waxman cited this as an example that abstinence education “stereotypes girls and boys” and “depicts girls as being unable to focus”. He does not explain that this statement was made in the context of the topic “How guys and girls can view sex differently”, addresses specific statements made on a video about these differences by real-life teens themselves and is based upon a published scientific study showing girls have more connective tissue between the left and right sides of their brains than guys.

Another example of material being taken out of context was a story cited about a “prince and princess.” This story is a humorous adaptation from “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, appears in the appendix as a teacher supplement and is designed to illustrate the differences in communication style between men and women. Waxman cites this as an example of stereotyping girls as needing protection. In addition to missing the point of the story, he fails to mention that this program is for older teens, deals with “Making Marriage Work” and presents widely accepted, mainstream relational principles that encourage the development of listening and appreciation skills in a marriage relationship.

Waxman’s report falsely asserts that abstinence education doesn’t work, completely ignoring countless studies to the contrary. For example, 2004 research results on Choosing the Best show a 26% decrease in the initiation of teen sex between those students receiving Choosing the Best vs. a control group after just one year. When Choosing the Best is presented by more experienced teachers, a 47% decrease is achieved. This is a very significant impact considering the national rate of sexually active teens has declined by just 16% over the last decade. In Georgia, where CTB and other abstinence programs are widely used, due to a change in public school policy in the mid-90s to mandate abstinence education, the teen pregnancy rate has been declining at double the national average. Waxman’s report further fails to acknowledge the 2004 CDC report stating that increased abstinence is the biggest reason (53%) for the decrease in national pregnancy rates among 15-17 year olds.

Further, Choosing the Best recognizes that parents are critical in the sexual education process and is committed to involving parents in their teens’ abstinence education. Golden states, “Studies show, as does my own experience as a Pediatrician, that abstinence works especially when combined with the involvement of parents in educating their children about what expectations they have and the setting of boundaries of behavior.” Choosing the Best utilizes parent-teen interviews and offers parent education programs to maximize the effectiveness of its curricula.

For more information about Choosing the Best, please call 1-800-774-2378 or visit www.choosingthebest.com.