Abstinence Based Sex Education Found Ineffective

The Republicans promote abstinence based sex-education which fail to include information on critical information such as contraception, with about $130 million expected to be spent on such programs in 2005. Texas A&M was comissioned by the Texas Department of State Health Services to conduct a study as to the effectiveness of abstinence based programs. The study failed to show any benefit per a Reuters report:

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.