Gov't Quietly Releases 10-Year Study On The (non)Impact of Teaching Abstinence

A little over ten years ago, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. It allocated 87.5 million dollars, annually, to fund abstinence-only teaching programs. The program’s goals were very specifically stated. It aimed to stop pre-marital sex by presenting abstinence until marriage as the “sexual standard’.

In 1997, Congress appointed a study group to evaluate this program as part of the Balanced Budget Act. The results of this study groups efforts were released last Friday in a news-we-hope-no-one-hears-about Friday dump. There was no press release or news conference. There was no official statement. It was published online without so much as a squeak.

So what’s 875 million dollars over ten years get us? Nothing. Literally nothing. Here’s what the study said:

On almost all fronts there was no discernible difference between the control group and the kids on the program. And in the two categories where there was a difference, it was only a 1% difference. This program is a total failure. No wonder it got the Friday news dump. Honestly, it should have. The fact that you can’t legislate morality is old news.

Read the full report: Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs (.pdf)