Another area where choice is not acceptable to “pro-choice” organizations is sex education. They demand “comprehensive” sex edu-cation that claims to include abstinence as the safest option, but focuses on use of condoms and morning-after pills “because abstinence is not realistic.” Since President Bush has been successful in obtaining funding for abstinence education, even though it is still only a fraction of the amount spent on “family planning” programs, efforts are now being made to discredit abstinence programs.

In December 2004, Congressman Henry Waxman charged that abstinence-only programs are misleading teenagers. Just recently, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), using the discredited Waxman material, has launched a drive to persuade education officials in 18 states to reject Federal government affiliated abstinence-only programs. Illinois is one of the states on their target list. The governor of Maine recently announced that his state will refuse these funds, joining California and Pennsylvania in refusing abstinence-only funds.

Another attack was initiated by the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) and Advocates for Youth. They filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services, seeking to cut Federal money from abstinence-only programs. They are invoking the Data Quality Act to argue that Bush administration funding of abstinence-only programs supports dissemination of misleading and inaccurate information.

What do these pro-abortion organizations consider “misleading and inaccurate” information? Giving a few examples will demonstrate who is doing the misleading. Should we believe that condoms fail 3% of the time (Waxman’s statistic) or 30% of the time? Should we believe that there is no connection between abortion and later infertility (Waxman’s claim) or that abortion often leads to the loss of fertility? If abstinence education was not effective, why would opponents be trying so hard to prevent children from receiving it? They must recognize that they are losing contraceptive and abortion revenue because abstinence education works.

The National Center for Health Statistics (CDC) released a report offering more evidence that abstinence education works. According to the report, “Teenagers in the United States: Sexual Activity, Contraceptive Use, and Childbearing, 2002”, fewer teens are having sex. Declines were particularly large among males age 15-19. The report also found that adolescents who chose to engage in sexual activity did so at older ages compared with a similar 1995 review.

A study released in June by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and completed by a contract with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., reveals that abstinence education works. According to this study, teens who participated in abstinence programs had increased awareness of the potential consequences of sexual activity before marriage, thought more highly of abstinent behaviors, and had less favorable opinions about sexual activity before marriage than did students who were not included in abstinence programs.

A study published in September by the American Journal of Health Behaviour, shows that “abstinence-until-marriage” programs have produced encouraging results among middle school students in Greater Cleveland. The study was conducted by surveying 2,069 grade seven and eight students that had participated in the school-based program called “For Keeps”, run by Operation Keepsake in Mayfield, OH. The program consists of five sessions that stress abstinence-until-marriage, virginity as a “gift” that should be shared in marriage, and the dangers of teen pregnancy and sexual diseases. Those students who were sexually active reported fewer sexual partners and sexual encounters five months later.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Elaine Borawski, commented that the results were a surprise. The public health researcher at Case Western Reserve University said the federally tax-funded program positively influenced sexually active adolescents. “Everyone says that kids who have had sex won’t find programs like this relevant,” said Borawski. “It did seem that it resonated with them more than we thought.”

The positive results of abstinence education were further confirmed by another study of teenagers who took part in a sexual abstinence campaign. This study, appearing in a recent issue of the journal “Adolescent & Family Health,” found teens were significantly less likely to have sex or use alcohol, drugs, or tobacco than their peers.