Swearing teenagers off sex doesn't work

You can't argue with statistics.

These researchers "reviewed 13 US trials involving over 15,000 people aged 10 to 21. They found abstinence programmes had no negative or positive impact on the rates of sex infections or unprotected sex."

See article.

So wearing a silver ring and getting engaged to Daddy doesn't work after all.

As if we didn't already know that.

Another rubbish idea from the religious patriarchy gets the kicking it deserves from science. Another victory for nature over will. Yeah!

[edit on 3-8-2007 by Astyanax]

I agree, there have been innumerable studies done over the years that conclude abstinence based education is ineffective. There are quite a few states right now that are losing funding for abstinence based educatinal programs because of this very reason. I currently work in Infectious Disease Prevention, so I deal with this first hand everytime we try to get into the school system, and until now it has been extremely difficult to talke about anything but abstinence. Hopefully policy makers will change their minds in lieu of this kind of evidence and state funding will go back into the hands of agencies that live in the real world...not the fantasy world of "just say no" policy. A nice phrase to remember is:

PREVENTION, not PREACHING!