Abstinence: it doesn't work

published Apr 15, 2007, last modified Dec 08, 2021

Have you heard about those programs to promote abstinence (that cost $87.5 million) in youngsters?

Well, they don't work. We know that because, on Friday, the Bush administration released a report detailing the results of those programs.

Let's get to the data. Let's put it in plain terms. Terms like, "oh, youngsters in those programs fucked the same as youngsters not in them". Do those terms work for my eager, select readership? I wouldn't know, but perhaps a set of barcharts can do the job:

Estimated impact on sexual abstinence

So, let me quote from the source article:

No effect at all. None. Other than the fact that $87 million a year has disappeared from our collective pockets just as surely as if the money had been thrown into a furnace, the abstinence-only classes might as well have not existed at all.

Adolescents fuck. That's a fact of life. We cannot bury our collective heads into the sand and pretend they don't. We might just need to teach them how to do it responsibly..