Federally funded sexual abstinence programs lie to kids

Sexual abstinence drives stretch facts


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only sex-education courses often get inaccurate or misleading information, the Washington Post has reported.

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According to a congressional staff analysis, some courses teach that touching a person's genitals can lead to pregnancy, abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, and half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS (news - web sites) virus, the Post said.

The report, prepared for California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, the Post said.

The Bush administration will provide $170 million (88 million pounds) next year to groups that teach abstinence only. Several million children age nine to 18 have participated in more than 100 federal abstinence programs since they began in 1999.

The report found that 11 of the 13 most commonly used curricula in such programs contained unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, the Post said.

Waxman's staff found the curricula included misconceptions such as a 43-day-old foetus is a "thinking person," HIV (news - web sites) can be spread through tears and sweat and condoms failed to prevent HIV transmission in 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse, the Post said.

"I have no objection to talking about abstinence as a sure-fire way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. I don't think we should lie to our children about science," Waxman told the newspaper.