FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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ATLANTA, November 6, 2006 — Last week the Committee on Government Reform released an official review of Representative Henry Waxman’s December 2004 report, The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Education Programs, finding that it was inaccurate and misrepresented abstinence education. 

The “Waxman Report” received extensive media coverage and was presented as an official and trustworthy evaluation of abstinence education. However, the congressional review found that “The Waxman Report fails to offer a fair and accurate assessment of abstinence education programs” and is “riddled with errors, half-truths and mischaracterizations.” The review further states, “By any reasonable standard, it [the Waxman Report] cannot be considered a definitive statement on abstinence education and should not be taken as such.”

According to this review, “A comparison of the Waxman Report and the actual abstinence curricula reviewed therein reveals that the Waxman Report relies heavily on information taken out of context... In nearly 5,000 pages of material, 49 questionable words or sentences represent less than one percent of all pages in the reviewed curricula... This one percent becomes even smaller when the purported inaccuracies are adjusted for misunderstandings of the curricula, good faith typographical errors, trivialities, and outright distortion and bias.”

The review found that in addition to inaccurately portraying the reviewed curricula, the Waxman Report also misrepresents the effectiveness of abstinence education and the high level of support for the abstinence message among parents and teens alike.  “In recent polls, over 90 percent of teens and adults believe that teens should be given a strong abstinence message not to have sex until they are at least out of high school.  Nearly 80 percent of parents think teens should be taught to delay sexual activity until marriage or in an adult relationship leading to marriage.”

The review concludes that “the Waxman Report should be rejected and abstinence education should receive the continued support of the U.S. Congress as it empowers state and local entities and parents to provide invaluable information for the physical and emotional health of America’s youth.”

To read the full review from the Committee on Government Reform, please click here. For more information about Choosing the Best, please call 1-800-774-2378 or visit www.choosingthebest.com.