What Compromise On Health Care Got Us

Obama's compromising got us $250 million federal dollars spent on abstinence-only sex education programs that don't work.

Organizations promoting evidence-based sex education say it's troubling that this $250 million will go to state programs that have not been shown to work.

"Just the fact that we continue to pour money into programs that have no evidence of effectiveness at all just doesn't seem to us to be good evidence-based health policy," said Heather Boonstra, senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive and sexual health research firm.

There have been numerous studies suggesting that it's not so easy for people to practice abstinence consistently. A congressionally mandated study in 2007 found that none of four abstinence programs showed a significant positive effect on sexual behavior among youth. A January 2009 study in Pediatrics found that religious teens who take virginity pledges are less likely to use condoms or birth control when they become sexually active, and just as likely to have sex before marriage as their peers who didn't take pledges.

Medical professional organizations also criticize abstinence education on ethical grounds, for leaving out potentially lifesaving information. Abstinence-only programs "are inherently coercive by withholding information needed to make informed choices," the American Public Health Association said in a statement.

Phelps' program doesn't teach that sex before marriage is wrong, but that waiting will enable teens to eliminate the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. Students are taught that contraception, a "limited part of our conversation," reduces risk, but does not avoid it altogether, he said.

The law sets up a separate funding stream of $75 million for "personal responsibility education," which includes teaching about both abstinence and contraception. It sets aside an additional $25 million for untested but innovative programs.

Having separate funding for abstinence-focused and comprehensive programs "is a method that provides real choice for states and for communities, and we would like to see that model used across the board," said Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association.

But Huber's group is not happy that abstinence-focused programs get less funding per year than the other approaches. "We would like to see equitable funding," she said.

Yes, let's spend even more billions on abstinence programs, none of which show "a significant positive effect on sexual behavior among youth."  Gosh, I know that the only way to make abstinence work is to throw more money at it.  Sexually transmitted diseases are getting more and more drug resistant, and pretending like teenagers will never, ever have sex because they promise not to isn't the way towards stopping these new bugs.

Hard facts and real education on stopping the spread of these diseases is.  Hell if anything, we need more sex education for people out of high school and beyond.  I grew up getting sex ed in the era of "HIV will 100% kill your ass if you don't use protection".  Now it's "Don't have sex, it's bad."  That'll stop them!  Teenagers always listen when you tell them no.

In all seriousness, what did we get for our compromise on funding abstinence-only for another 5 years?  I'm betting the health costs down the road will be more than $250 million.