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NEWS & ANALYSIS
Gov. Napolitano Ignores Success of Abstinence Education
By Dennis Durband Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano's rejection of federal Title V funds for state abstinence education relies on a faulty study and ignores the overwhelming success of the program in past years. In a Jan. 18 letter to Michael Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Napolitano wrote: “As you are aware, several recent studies, including one commissioned by the federal government, have confirmed that abstinence-only programs are not producing results. When I find myself in the position of having to fight to protect services that clearly have an impact on the lives of Arizonans, like dental services for low-income seniors, I cannot, in good conscience, set funding aside for programming that is proven to be ineffective.” Furthermore, the governor had agreed in the 2005 state budget negotiations to restore the program. She made a public announcement Jan. 18 about her letter to the federal government at a Planned Parenthood luncheon in Phoenix . An independent review of abstinence education in Arizona reveals a high success rate. The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) issued a final report documenting the success of the program in its five-year history, from 1998 to 2003. In the "Highlights" section of the final report, ADHS reported, "Satisfaction with the program was high among all participant groups": • "Among teens, those most satisfied with the program were sexually experienced youths who planned to stop having sex after having completed the program." • A follow-up study found that virgins had a 95-percent abstinence success rate, and non-virgins had a 52 percent abstinence success rate. Prepared by LeCroy & Milligan Associates, Inc., the ADHS report stated: "A significant shift toward less risky sexual behaviors occurred among sexually experienced teens from school, after-school and community programs; including less alcohol and drug abuse accompanying sex, proportionately fewer reported STDs, greater condom and birth control use and fewer reported pregnancies." The Abstinence Only Education Program positively influenced the risk and protective factors related to the long-term outcomes of pregnancy and sex before marriage. Significant short-term gains were reported among children, pre-teens, teens and high-risk adults for the program administered in school, after school or in detention, community or residential settings. Additional short-term outcomes maintained over time included improvement in refusal skills, an increase in teens' personal value exploration and increased endorsement of the health benefits of abstinence. The abstinence program was a major school initiative implemented broadly throughout Arizona to diverse groups of participants. More than 123,000 people were exposed to the program, mostly teens and pre-teens. Seventeen contractors delivered the program in 12 of the state's 15 counties. In its peak years, the program reached 175 middle and high schools, 42 detention and residential facilities and 32 community and after-school locations. In some counties, parents conducted workshops to help provide consistency in the values and messages presented by the abstinence program. The basic message delivered to the many thousands of participants was "sexual abstinence until marriage." Curricula focused on the consequences of pre-marital sex and on developing skills to refuse sexual overtures. Another key component of the program was a television, radio and print media campaign to encourage abstinence. In her recent letter, the governor urged Sec. Leavitt to “refocus on the purpose of this educational funding and to retool the program so that it can have an actual impact on reducing the number of teenage pregnancies.” She asked him to call on her as a resource if there is any movement to improve the effectiveness of the program. Facts simply don't back up Gov. Napolitano's incorrect assertions. Her stance is also contrary to public opinion. A poll by Zogby International last year showed broad support for abstinence education over ‘comprehensive' sex education -- by a 2:1 margin.
While abstinence programs have been largely responsible for decreases in
teen pregnancies and STDs, so-called “comprehensive safe-sex” programs
have received 12 times the amount of government money as abstinence
programs. Comprehensive programs have not been proven to delay teen sex.
The over-riding message of comprehensive sex education is to encourage
sexual activity, at the expense of abstinence education.
Napolitano's reference to studies refuting the efficacy of abstinence includes a national study by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., in which four different abstinence education programs were selected as subjects for a long-term evaluation. This study reported that teen participants in these abstinence programs did not abstain from sexual activity more than non-participants, when measured 2½ to 5½ years after the program ended. The Institute for Research and Evaluation (IRE), which has evaluated more than 100 abstinence education programs in 30 states, reported: “The Mathematica study, and the four programs it evaluated, cannot be generalized to represent the efficacy of abstinence programs in general,” and “When held to the same criteria employed by the Mathematica evaluation, comprehensive sex education programs do not appear to work.” The Mathematica study has been discounted due to cross-contamination of program effects, a non-representative study sample, using an unusually long follow-up time frame, inappropriate timing of program dose and inadequate utilization of mediator variables. The IRE report concluded that “Well-designed and well-implemented abstinence programs can reduce teen sexual activity by as much as one-half for periods of one to two years, substantially increasing the number of adolescents who avoid the full range of problems related to teen sexual activity. Abandoning this strategy because of one study containing numerous limitations and shifting to a strategy that has shown little success across a broad range of studies would appear to be a policy driven by politics rather than by a desire to protect American teens." Abstinence education offers benefits to children and to society that are not found in “comprehensive sex education.” Arizona needs to restore abstinence education and reap the positive results. The governor did not respond to The Arizona Conservative request for comment. |
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