Studies Demonstrate Abstinence Education Works

Studies Demonstrate Abstinence Education Works

WASHINGTON, April 22 /Christian Newswire/ -- Two new studies presented at the National Press Club provide encouraging findings about abstinence education.

The first study by Dr. Stan Weed, Institute of Research and Evaluation, evaluated the impact of abstinence education in reducing the initiation of sexual activity by seventh graders in suburban Virginia. Dr. Weed's findings demonstrate that abstinence education programs cut the rate of sexual initiation among students almost in half and that gender and race did not affect the outcome. Dr. Weed is scheduled to present his findings at a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, April 23, 2008.

The second paper is a background paper published by Heritage Foundation's Christine Kim and Robert Rector. This paper reviews twenty-one abstinence education programs and finds that sixteen overall reported statistically positive results such as delayed sexual initiation and reduced levels of early sexual activity.

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, concludes, "Refraining from sexual initiation is the healthiest decision for youth. It protects them from pregnancy, STDs, other risk behaviors and emotional entanglements that are too intimate for immature youth to handle. This is the main criteria on which sex education programs should be evaluated, and these new studies show that abstinence education successfully reduces sexual initiation."

Dr. Janice Crouse, senior fellow of the Beverly LaHaye Institute stated, "It is amazing that some legislators would want to cut abstinence education funding when it is such a drop in the bucket to the amount of money that goes to comprehensive sex education programs. And, look at what happened when all that money was spent for all those years on comprehensive sex education -- teen sexual activity went up, teen pregnancies went up and abortions went up. Now that we have more abstinence programs in more schools, all three trends are going down. Now, THAT is what ought to happen and the programs that make that happen are what we ought to support."

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.

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