11.27.2004

We don't need no data!

Abstinence programs will get their funding, and that's that dammit! Though evidence is mounting that absitnence-only programs aren't doing what they're intended to do:

"Ten state evaluations, compiled by a group that opposes abstinence-only education, showed little change in teens' behavior since the start of abstinence programs in 1997."

Hmmh, if you're conservative and in charge, that must mean only one thing:

"Meanwhile, a national evaluation of abstinence programs has been delayed, with a final report not expected until 2006."

yup, delay evaluating--strangely, we sped up evaluation when it came to war with Iraq, but I digress. Let's face it, when you're right, you're right:

We don't need a study, if I remember my biology correctly, to show us that those people who are sexually abstinent have a zero chance of becoming pregnant or getting someone pregnant or contracting a sexually transmitted disease," said Wade Horn, the assistant secretary of Health and Human Services in charge of federal abstinence funding.

Sooohhhhh, these programs have been around for at least two years, but a paucity of data on their effectiveness keeps them afloat. Wha? You'd think that if you ask little Billy and little Jane whether they had sex uh, let's say a year after being taught abstinence, that that would help give you kind of an idea as to whether things is going your way or not, right? But, alas, we'll need to keep the programs around for a while because they're

"something that parents and children want."

uhm, I'm not sure about the parents, but I can remember what I wanted back in highschool!