Congress examines the evidence on abstinence-only education programs.

Continued funding for federal abstinence- only-until-marriage programs was hotly debated during a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on April 23. The first-ever congressional hearing to examine the effectiveness of abstinence-only education clearly put social conservatives on the defensive against a wealth of evidence that such a highly restrictive educational approach is not effective in stopping or delaying teen sex. A panel of public health experts including representatives of the American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine testified that there is no evidence base to support the current massive federal investment in abstinence-only programs. "In fact" said Margaret Blythe of the American Academy of Pediatrics "abstinence-only programs are not only ineffective but may cause harm by providing inadequate and inaccurate information and resulting in participants failure to use safer sex practices once intercourse is initiated." Indeed a recent congressionally mandated evaluation of federally funded abstinence-only programs by Mathematica Policy Research found that these programs have no beneficial impact on whether young people abstain when they first have sex or their numbers of sexual partners. (excerpt)