Sexual Health Education in the US: A Message from the President
An infamous quote declares that if one tells a big enough lie often enough it will be believed by many. But even if what is said is not a conscious lie but, rather, merely an innocent but erroneous misstatement of fact, the same result may well prevail.
There is much public concern, and rightly so, with the high rates of nonmarital pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. But how should those problems be addressed? In prominent reports, news media, and elsewhere, it is being asserted as “well known fact” that abstinence education doesn’t work, that comprehensive sex education does, and spending any government funds on abstinence education is a waste of taxpayer’s money. But is that a true picture?
At the Medical Institute, we believe in looking solely to accurate facts and data, thereby determine what is the truth, and then applying this truth to maximize health and happiness of as many people as possible. What results are obtained when we apply this test to the issue at hand? In a thorough and well documented analysis of the existing evidence, The Institute for Research & Evaluation has concluded that the highly publicized, popular perceptions concerning this issue are greatly in error. The study, entitled Another Look at the Evidence: Abstinence and Comprehensive Sex Education in Our Schools, evaluated the summary reached in a study known as Emerging Answers 2007 and the 115 evaluation studies which formed the basis of that study. Another Look, which can be obtained in its entirety at http://instituteresearch.com/docs/Another_Look_at_the_Evidence_
(IRE,_05-13-09).pdf concludes, in part:
“The common perception about the effectiveness of these two prevention strategies is not accurate. …there is little evidence that school-based comprehensive sex education strategies are effective. …There is evidence that school-based abstinence education can be an effective prevention strategy.”
So what’s the truth here? Before funding for abstinence education is scrapped, as threatened, we urge that every effort be made to ascertain what is the true picture, and that everyone who is in a position to determine the outcome of the issue be informed of that truth. The determination of this important issue must be based on that truth, a proposition upon which all persons of good intention, regardless of present viewpoint, should be able to agree.
Arthur H. Coleman
President/CEO
