Is Sex Ed Working?

March 24, 2008— -- Concern over sex education is alive and well in the nation's capital.

The political and ethical debate over what to teach teenagers about sex is being reinvigorated after a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Now some say the study, the first of its kind, reveals why it's so important to teach teens not to have sex at all; others argue that the study proves that federally funded abstinence-only education isn't working.

Stoking the fire, a study published in the April edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health found that those who received comprehensive sex education were 50 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received abstinence-only education. The study also found that those who received comprehensive sex education were 60 percent less likely to become pregnant than those who received no sex education at all.

"I do think that there's strong evidence that comprehensive sex education is more effective at preventing teen pregnancies," said Pamela Kohler, lead author of the study and program manager at the University of Washington's Center for AIDS and STD. "I think we pretty much debunked the myth that comprehensive sex education causes teenagers to have sex."

In Washington, D.C., however, the debate continues to be politicized.

On March 20, 76 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the House panel that considers federal funding levels, arguing that the government's abstinence-only education program should be eliminated.

The majority of government money for abstinence-only education comes from a program established in 2001 under President George W. Bush. Money for that program, which is given directly to state and local groups, has increased from $20 million to $113 million per year. A smaller pool of money that is divvied out to states to promote abstinence-only education was created under President Bill Clinton in 1996. Seventeen states have started refusing that money, some citing the lack of evidence that abstinence programs work.