Friday, July 20, 2007

How to Waste $500 Million

From a portion of an article on abstinence-only education programs that the federal government is considering funding to the tune of $141 million next year:

"Since 1996, the federal government has spent over a half a billion taxpayer dollars on abstinence-only programs, despite federal, state and independent evaluations showing the programs to be counterproductive and fiscally wasteful.

A 2006 study by the independent Society for Adolescent Medicine called the programs “scientifically and ethically flawed” and found that the “efficacy of abstinence-only interventions may approach zero.”

Twenty-three percent of U.S. school districts run abstinence-only programs, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The rate of sexually transmitted infections and HIV has increased among youth since these programs were implemented, with 4 million young people in the U.S. contracting sexually-transmitted diseases each year.

Almost half of high school students in the United States report being sexually active. Youth who have participated in abstinence-only programs and have pledged to save their virginity until marriage are just as likely to have sex as their peers. Those who participate in abstinence-only programs, however, are one-third less likely than their peers to use contraception when they do become sexually active.

“Considering that young people ages 15 to 24 account for almost half of all new HIV infections reported in the United States each year, these programs put our youth in serious danger,” GMHC said in a statement."

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Just more evidence the President and his party have cared only for the souls of Americans, and not for their health or well-being. Why would we think they care for our health when they're shipping our soldiers to Iraq without the necessary training or equipment? Of course, they "stand behind our men and women in uniform". Yes they do...very far behind! Usually several thousand MILES behind! I'm just thinking of all the things that could be done with half a billion dollars that would actually do some good: levees along the Mississippi, perhaps?

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